12:29pm Sunday 30th September 2007
POLLUTION levels in an Acton road have quadrupled legal limits and are the highest in London.
Horn Lane, in Acton, which runs between Acton High Street and the A40, had 133 bad air days this year according to a report by the Green Party at the London Assembly almost four times the number permitted by European Union (EU) legislation.
The EU only allows areas to exceed pollution limits on 35 days a year and if no attempt is made to tackle the problem it could pursue legal action against Ealing Council.
Liza Ctori, Environmental Team Leader for Ealing Council, attributed the high levels to 3 industrial sites in the area but said that not all councils record pollution levels effectively.
She said: "It is worth noting that there are only a limited number of monitoring sites across the city so there is no data for some local authorities in other boroughs which may well have similar levels of pollution."
Richard Barnes, Conservative London Assembly member for Ealing and Hillingdon, said it was the Council's responsibility to solve the problem but also blamed the Labour government.
He said: "I think it is a crying shame Labour did not put an underpass in way back in 97. It would have redirected the congestion but stopping it was one of the first things John Prescott did when he came to office in 1997.
"I also hope Transport for London do not build the 24 hour bus maintance depot on Horn Lane."
An application was made to Ealing Council to use land at the junction between Horn Lane and Western Avenue, Acton, in November 2004, but was refused.
Darren Johnson, a Green Party member for the London Assembly, said: "The failure of the Government and local authorities borders on the criminal and we need the European Commission to take firm action against them.
"We have had over a decade of drift and complacency. A wasted decade in which we should have reduced air pollution down to the less damaging levels set by the European Union, yet many Londoners are still dying and suffering unnecessarily from increased traffic pollution."
Mr Johnson sees traffic reduction as the solution to the problem through more investment in public transport, cycling and walking.
Ealing council produced an action plan for improving air quality after it was predicted to fail national targets in December 2000.
Pollution is responsible for more than 1000 premature deaths a year in London and reduces the average life expectancy of Britons by eight months.
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