Paul Fawkesley

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Paul Fawkesley

Clean Air Liverpool was a citizen air quality campaign (May 2023)

A warning sign attached to a lamp-post reading 'Warning, very high air pollution'

It is estimated that long-term exposure to man-made air pollution in the UK has an annual effect equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths

— Public Health England

In 2023 I led a campaign called Clean Air Liverpool. We helped residents to ask councillor candidates about air pollution ahead of the May local elections.

In 2022 I stumbled across a fantastic little website called addresspollution.org

It allowed you to enter your postcode and find a personalised air pollution report for your address.

I loved the way seeing your own home made it so real and caused an emotional trigger.

Liverpool ❤️ cars

Liverpool is a city that’s in love with cars. We have a serious air pollution problem, with the entire city centre being designated a Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).

Around this time the council had abandoned plans for a congestion charge. It felt like they were giving up and ignoring the problem. Their plans for tackling air pollution appeared utterly ineffective and lacking courage.

Knowing that there was a big location election coming up, I wondered if I could use addresspollution.org to put air pollution back on the local political agenda.

Clean Air Liverpool is a citizen campaign

We’re raising awareness of Liverpool’s dangerous air pollution.

There’s a local election on 4th May.

We want every candidate to be talking about air pollution.

The council was planning a clean air zone, just like Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle and others.

But a small, aggressive lobby dominated the conversation.

Made it seem like no-one cares about clean air.

We must show that we care.

☠️ Air pollution kills

Air pollution kills us and stunts our children’s lungs.

It kills 16-20 times more people than road accidents.

But we aren’t talking about it.

It’s not on the election leaflets.

It’s not on the agenda.

That needs to change.

👨‍👩‍👧 By residents, for residents

We are a non-political, citizen campaign.

We live in Liverpool.

We work in Liverpool.

Our children’s lungs are stunted in Liverpool.

We don’t care how you vote or what you believe in.

We just want you to talk about air pollution.

🗳️ Every councillor is up for re-election

The 4th May local election is huge.

All 85 councillors are up for re-election.

Our aim is simple. Get answers from every candidate on air pollution.

We need voters from every ward to ask their candidates about air pollution.

Full write-up to follow…

Air pollution around Liverpool schools

We searched all 150 Liverpool City Council schools in addresspollution.org. The result was staggering.

All 150 schools exceededed the 3 World Health Organisation annual guidelines.

Download air pollution data for 150 schools:

Responses from election candidates

We asked these five questions and received the responses below.

  1. What measures would you propose to reduce air pollution and congestion and improve public health?
  2. How would you increase and decarbonise public transport provision in Liverpool City Region?
  3. How would you promote the switch from car to ‘active travel’ and develop a network of protected cycle paths?
  4. What would you do to protect green spaces, biodiversity, trees, plants, wildlife in the city from the impacts of air pollution?
  5. What are your views on the proposed Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill that seeks to make ‘clean air’ a human right?

Ordered alphabetically by surname.

Simon Francois Xavier Albert Baron

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Angela Coleman

Labour Party

Many thanks for your email, I agree with you that air pollution is a health concern for us all and especially children.

We have put forward a comprehensive manifesto, which addresses all aspects of what it means to live healthily in a vibrant city like Liverpool. We are often about meeting and chatting to our residents at this time of year, so I will forward it to you for ease.

https://liverpoollabour.co.uk/our-manifesto/

As you will see environmental concerns are a thread running through everything we intend to do. If you have any more questions please don”t hesitate to ask.

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Anna Corkill

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Maria Teresa Coughlan

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Peter Cranie

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Tom Crone

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Norman Darbyshire

Liberal Democrats

  1. It must be a City priority to improve air quality and to reduce the traffic congestion that at present contributes to poor air quality and makes civic travel slow, inefficient and stressful. I would support the introduction of low emission zones and focus on improving our public transport service. The bus fleet must be increased with the interdiction of low emission vehicles, more frequent service at a lower cost to the passenger.

  2. It must be our priority to electrify our public transport system. The council should explore cost effective and rapid solutions to achieve this goal through low and zero emission buses. This needs to be achieved through a council business partnership - cleaner transport and lower congestion would bring immediate dividends to local businesses by cutting waste in time, fuel and the production of atmospheric pollutants.

  3. The development of an urban and suburban cycle network provides an excellent opportunity to combine lowering pollution and congestion with increasing general fitness standards. I would focus on developing cycle routes .I would suggest a cycling development partnership with the City of Rotterdam to use established successful expertise in Civic cycle use and development. Of course we have one of the nation’s finest cycle ways already passing through Knotty Ash and providing an excellent basis for cycleway development.

  4. it is important to protect and develop our green spaces and parks. We must maintain the investment in these areas and ensure that we have suitably qualified and experienced personnel to protect trees, open spaces and biodiversity. I would develop links between our three excellent universities and local schools to ensure pupils have the opportunity to contribute to open space protection, improvement and development. A well planned an efficiently executed traffic control policy would have positive effects on green space air quality.

  5. Clean air is a universal human right. The production of atmospheric pollution is a criminal act. Our lives depend on the rapid improvement of air quality. If we allow present levels of pollution to continue, children in our City will die and our planet will be damaged beyond repair. Support the Clean Air Human Rights Act!

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Michael Flaherty

Independent

Unfortunately , I don't subscribe to WEF induced hysteria with no basis in factual reality sorry.

You mention the W.H.O on several occasions.

The same W.H.O that has lied through its teeth for the best part of the past 3 or 4 years ?

I would suggest keeping your tinfoil hat conspiracies to yourself as I certainly have no interest in engaing with such metnal illness.

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Adam Heatherington

Reform UK

  1. What measures would you propose to reduce air pollution and congestion and improve public health?

I would introduce pedestrian only zones through out the city with roads designated for cycles and pedestrians only. I would also introduce more trees to help combat the carbon monoxide. Introduce fines for vehicles omitting to much pollution.

  1. How would you increase and decarbonise public transport provision in Liverpool City Region? More electric delivery vans, taxis and the introduction of bio diesel plants and service stations. Have funding for more conversions. Reward older car users you have not changed their vehicles but kept an old vehicle on the road, petrol only. This reduces the carbon foot print and Electric cars are still unavoidable for the working class.

  2. How would you promote the switch from car to ‘active travel’ and develop a network of protected cycle paths? Route cycle paths along wider roads and also section part of the pavements of for cycle use only. Keep electric scooters of all pavements and introduce fines and prosecutions.

  3. What would you do to protect green spaces, biodiversity, trees, plants, wildlife in the city from the impacts of air pollution? I have campaigned tirelessly over the less thirty years to stop development on green fields (Save Manweb playing fields) Only brown fill for development and green space kept for flood plains, recreation and nature. Air pollution is a big problem I suffer with breathing problems whilst walking and jogging around Wavertree due to the excessive traffic I would block roads off on high pollution days to help safeguard the people’s health.

  4. What are your views on the proposed Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill that seeks to make ‘clean air’ a human right?

Fully agree Air quality is a basic human right, everyone is entitled to clean air. More affordable electric vehicles are needed but small freight could be carried on cycles carts around the city and neighbour to cut down on pollution. Greener taxis are needed in the city to help combat pollution. School children should wear masks whilst working to school to prevent health issues.

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Kevin Alan Hill

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

John David Howard

Green Party

I have taken the lead on drafting the following statement and policies for Liverpool Green Party:

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Toby James Irving

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Richard Kemp

Liberal Democrats

Thank you for this. I share your concern especially for the air quality around some of our schools.

If you go onto our website at http://www.liverlibdems.org.uk you can look at or download a copy of our manifesto. Behind it there is a more detailed technical document which I can supply you with if you want more information.

We believe that Liverpool Council has had a very tokenistic approach to all environmental uses from recycling rates to air quality. We need to deliver a green agenda and not just talk about it.

I would be happy to talk to you and friends in more detail after the election but, as I am sure you will understand, it's all a bit frenetic at present.

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Martyn Paul Madeley

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Liz Makinson

Liberal Democrats

I am extremely concerned about the levels of air pollution in our city and in particular the stats around schools which show levels of nitrogen dioxide and toxic fine particles exceeding WHO limits.

One issue outside schools is parents and others running their car engines whilst waiting to pick up pupils. I have worked with schools to try and combat this and encourage parking away from school gates and certainly not to wait with the engine running. This is an ongoing battle however but one which I will keep pressing due to its importance in protecting everyone, in particular children.

I have supported the staff and students at Calderstones School in trying to reduce congestion on Harthill Road and will continue to work with the school in any way that I can to achieve this. The student council at the school are a case in point of young people absolutely leading the way in knowledge of and willingness to take action on environmental issues.

Of great concern to me is the council having closed air quality monitoring stations. The first step to solving any issue is understanding the extent of the problem.

We need to create a situation where the car is not the obvious first choice for so many people. On the transport authority, I have argued for more green transport and faster rolling out of hydrogen buses. I also think it is important that things like charging points are provided on buses to encourage business users and others to make the choice to travel by bus. I sit on the TravelSafe Board of the transport Authority and have been highlighting the importance of making sure that safety is paramount in order to increase public transport use and the move away from private vehicles. 42% of women surveyed had safety concerns about using public transport during the day. It is vital that all groups in society feel safe using transport and I have also raised the issue of the necessity to have LGBTQ+ representation on the board.

In the same survey, 80% of women said they felt unsafe at night due to poor or no street lighting. I argued against proposals by the council to reduce street lighting and thankfully the move was dropped but the situation we currently have needs improvement. Obviously as a ward councillor I frequently report street lights that are not working but we need brighter street lighting and faster repairing of lights. I see this as a vital step in getting people to walk at night or use public transport.

I think we need a whole city conversation about proper cycle routes. We have had too many short cycle routes that do not connect that cyclists still do not feel safe using. It is about changing culture not just unconnected cycle sections that do not encourage significantly more people to cycle. Before I was a councillor, I fully supported and took part in the huge community campaign to save part of Calderstones Park from luxury housing development. I have since fully supported the establishment of a nature reserve and wild flower meadow. Green space is vital for biodiversity and for our physical and mental well being and I will always fight to preserve it. I have also worked with Allerton in Bloom who are a fantastic community organisation, to support their work in establishing a community orchard and herb garden.

For me, the great 19th century debate on whether clean water was a human right and should be provided for all is sadly being played out again in terms of clean air. I absolutely and unequivocally believe that clean air is a human right but it is ignored because it is not there to ’see’ so we live with the insidious and deadly consequences of air quality that falls short of WHO standards across the city. I am also greatly concerned that indoor air quality has seemingly fallen off the agenda.

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Andrew Kendrick Makinson

Liberal Democrats

I absolutely agree that clean air is a human right.

Green spaces and biodiversity are absolutely vital, which is why I fought so hard against the proposed sale by Liverpool City Council of 13 acres of Calderstones Park. Since that victory, I have supported Friends of Calderstones Park to create a nature reserve on the land saved, and worked with Mersey Forrest to create a woodland on the disused parts of Heron Eccles Playing Fields. I have also worked with Allerton in Bloom on greening projects through L18, including a community orchard and herb garden on the grounds of Allerton Library.

While we will never persuade most car owners to give up their vehicles, we need to create an environment where the car isn’t the first choice for every journey.

As someone who has never owned a car, I know that the greenest, cheapest and most accessible form of transport for most people on foot, but too often in Liverpool this is not an attractive option. We have too many dangerous junctions where it is not safe to cross, damaged pavements and too few dropped kerbs to assist those with mobility issues. Selfish drivers are allowed to leave their vehicles anywhere, without fear of being fined.

I want to recruit an army of parking wardens to help reclaim our streets, and for community road safety schemes, such as the dangerous Mather Avenue/Greenhill Road junction to be prioritised over unnessesary city centre road works.

I strongly support school streets as a way to improve air quality around schools, and have called for school staff to be given the power to ticket cars parked illegally.

We need cycle lanes that take people where they actually want to go, not just anywhere they can be installed cheaply as a tick box exercise for city planners.

Our area has a second class rail network, with slow, infrequent, and unreliable trains. For over 20 years I have led calls for disused rail lines and tunnels under the city to be used to expand Merseyrail, giving stations like Mossley Hill and West Allerton fast and clean access to the heart of Liverpool.

As a city we also have some of the worst park and ride provision in the UK. You only have to visit the full car park at Liverpool South Parkway to see how demand for public transport is being suppressed. The long promised expansion of this car park should be built, along with a large park and ride on derelict land next to Edge Hill station.

We need to look again at how to make bus travel more attractive, including using technology to give buses priority at junctions. I was vocal in opposing the previous mayor’s decision to arbitrarily scrap bus lanes throughout the city. Recent reductions in bus fares are welcome, but in many cases we also saw bus routes cut and services reduced to hourly.

Finally, while we can prompt and encourage people to reduce car usage, most will never give up their vehicles completely. We need a greater roll out of on-street charging points to enable the many residents of Liverpool without private driveways to decarbonise.

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Clare McIntyre

Labour Party

I have 4 children, me and they all have asthma. so my answer to number 1 is simply to support everyone using their car less or even give it up. 2) support reduced fares for public transport so it becomes financially the cheapest option to travel. work with LCR partners to ensure we get a "London style" public transport system 3) I am keen for school streets , would love for employers to be more flexible so parents can walk their children to school, good for everyone's wellbeing. We need segregated cycle paths everywhere, including main routes - Copenhagen style , to support established riders, but also those eho were nervous and perhaps went back to cycling during loc down when the roads were reclaimed 4) Green spaces and plants, trees and shrubs support reducing air pollution so more, not less, plus they make the walk to school etc so much nicer. 5) absolutely agree- clean air is a basic human right

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Peter Millea

Liberal Democrats

What Garstonians already know about me, as I have been notifying them in my literature, are the following:

  1. I campaign for better bus services. especially on the 80/80a route.
  2. I campaign for car parking restrictions and enforcement in Garston Village - St. Mary's Road - to enable better bus access and patronage.
  3. I campaign for the water companies to pay for their polluting of the River Mersey.
  4. I am opposed to incinerators at the Veolia plant in King Street.
  5. I wish to see more houses have solar panels installed, and if elected, would look to expand such a programme.
  6. I have taken part in and supported litter picking to encourage a cleaner environment.
  7. I want to see more speed restrictions in our residential areas to reduce carbon emissions and make our streets safer for pedestrians.
  8. I wish to see real enforcement in our communities to deal with dog fouling.
  9. I would like to encourage local schoolchildren to take the lead in tree planting, rather than tree destruction.
  10. I want to deal with the real issue of inconsiderate parking outside schools, placing young children in danger of accidents.

I apologise if these do not match the scientific nature of your questions and assertions, but these are things which matter to the people of Garston and matter to me.

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David William Morgan

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Steve Munby

Labour Party

  1. I think it’s important to start with measures relating to the Council’s own fleet. When I was in the Cabinet, I arranged a replacement programme for the diesel-powered bin wagons with CNG and buying electric powered street cleaning vehicles. We need to do the same with the rest of the Council’s fleet and also work with other large organisations with a big fleet e.g. universities, hospital trusts and the ambulance service to promote a transition to cleaner vehicles. We need to increase the number of electric charging points to encourage the transition to electric-powered vehicles. We need to encourage big organisations to analyse journey times and distances to reduce unnecessary travel times (and cost) and to create more car-free areas, particularly in the city centre. I strongly supported the changes to Bold Street and Castle Street. In terms of schools, we should combine car-free areas in their immediate vicinity with encouraging initiatives like ‘Walk to School’ discouraging parents from driving children to school. I support moves to introduce a Clean Air Zone covering the city centre and adjacent areas.

  2. I am pleased with Merseytravel’s initiatives to introduce electric buses. Their control over bus journeys is currently limited but will increase in future. The £2 fare cap was a step in the right direction to encourage bus use. Similarly, the new trains for Merseyrail improve the situation.

  3. By a combination of placing restrictions on where cars can go and speed limits with introducing new cycling and walking routes. I don’t drive myself and go everywhere by bike, foot, and bus. We are working to create new cycle routes through the Dingle from St Michaels along Grafton Street and Caryl Street into town, as well as horizontal routes from Princes Park and Park Road to the waterfront. I hope these come into place in the next year.

  4. I am pleased the Council has signed up to Fields in Trust protecting our parks and green spaces in perpetuity. I strongly support increased tree planting. Over the years I’ve worked with Friends of Princes Park who have planted thousands of new trees. We created new allotments on Parkhill Road and a network of community gardens around the Dingle growing fresh food. We have supported the work of Scouse Flowerhouse planting wildflowers in conjunction with children from local schools on Millers Field, on Park Road by the Sports Centre and on Caryl Street.

  5. I support the Clean Air Bill.

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Sally Claire Newey

Green Party

I support Liverpool Green Party statement of policy intentions to mitigate against poor air quality in Liverpool.

I would also lobby to bring in Green Wall's around schools, as a measure to mitigate air pollution

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

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Kevin Robinson-Hale

Green Party

1 - I would ask schools in my ward to have walk/cycle to school days and in my nephews school when he has walked to work each day for the whole week he is given a badge as a reward I would look at introducing incentives to work places and schools to introduce walk/cycle to work days. The idea of a £1 flat fare for bus journeys would be a huge incentive in getting people to travel to work, shopping etc by using public transport. The current £2 fare doesn’t go far enough.

2 - Similar to question 1 the £1 flat fare for bus journeys would be a huge incentive in getting people to use public transport along with the role out of more electric buses

3 - in my ward Everton West we are currently improving our cycle routes into Liverpool city centre. I believe that work places could offer incentives to staff by asking them to ditch the car for a Greener journey into work. Maybe a loyalty scheme with likeminded retail outlets would encourage people to make a switch.

4 - In Everton West part of our Green space was given away for FREE To a developer and this has to stop. The green spaces in my ward are vital to our community. I would introduce more community days where we can have organisations coming together to get people involved. My ward has one if the highest level of pollution in the city and also one of the highest lung related diseases in the city. We need to implement long lasting change and by keeping our parks safe from sale is a huge priority

5 - Clean Air is a fundamental human right and this needs to be a priority for any government

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Joseph Rynhart

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

Muryam Saffia Aminah Sheikh

Green Party

Replied with the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

David Ronald Teasdale

Green Party

I entirely share your concerns. I live on Menlove Avenue and the figures for the area are frightening. That said, from what I have seen, many areas of Liverpool are even worse, and it is essential that our Council sets about improving on this terrible situation.

The Green Party has long campaigned for active travel, and clean air. Liverpool Greens have a clear policy on air pollution which our councillors will work at implementing. I have attached a pdf of our statement and policies. If you have got any questions about them, or suggestions for improving them please email me via this address. All the very best David

Attached the Green Party statement on new air quality data for LCR.

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Julian Garfield Todd

Green Party

The Green Party has an evolving document called Policies for a Sustainable Society that explains our approach in much clearer terms than I am able to right here. You will find TR042 references air pollution from transport.

https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/our-policies/long-term-goals/transport/

Much of the problem can only be solved through reduction of an ever increasing demand for transport, which is inherently polluting. This requires policy changes all through the rest of the economy.

I'd support the principle of a Clean Air Bill in principle, but I fear that the law is no substitute for creating the political will required to push through the necessary changes.

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Alan Tormey

The Liberal Party

Moss Walls and Bus Stop Roof Gardens

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Ann Walsh

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

  1. Take busses back under local government control and invest for an improved and affordable service.

  2. Invest in renewable energy and sustainable public transport.

  3. I would call for investment in a safe and extensive network of cycle paths and would work with local residents to pedestrianise where possible.

  4. I would prioritise local shops above out of town supermarkets and make local shops a pleasant, safe, green space where people can walk to. And plant Invest in green spaces in the community.

  5. I support the bill as would support the health and wellbeing of the people in my community.

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William Ward

Green Party

  1. There is no immediate solution to air pollution, since Thatchers government from 1979 to the present all national governments and to a certain extent local governments have followed the mantra " more cars and trucks on our roads , therefore we must build more and bigger roads". Plainly this has not worked over the last 40 plus years. If we genuinely wanted to protect the lungs and general health of our young ones and vulnerable seniors, we would treat environmental pollution as the insidious killer that it is and take emergency action. This would involve a mass public information campaign encouraging walking and cycling to schools/work/the shops; only using vehicles for emergencies; police major hotspots -outside schools/junctions etc at busy times. In addition consulting with residents through community centres and local sports clubs etc. get people onboard with the programme. What would really help would be pollution monitors at key points that were highly visible and showed real time pollution levels. this could also be used to engage people through a free app that everyone could use (perhaps combined with some portable monitors distributed throughout the community).

  2. Taking transport into public control (if not complete ownership) would reduce pollution levels at a stroke. Commercial companies compete for the busiest routes at the busiest times (which is why several buses come at once, overtaking each other to collect passengers) leaving off peak times to be neglected. The government in London knew that to privatise London transport would be a disaster but for the rest of the UK they were keen to release the 'greater efficiencies of the market'. Right now Manchester combined authority is in the process of taking back control of its transport system and its something that Liverpool is looking at. An integrated public transport system, is cheaper and more efficient than a multitude of private operators and hundreds of thousands of car owners fighting for space on our roads. All over the world cities and some countries are building low energy, low pollution transport and energy systems. We need to shout louder.

  3. Lets get real, people are not going to jump on their bikes or let their kids cycle to and fro as long as there are no safe cycle ways. A line painted on the road instructing cyclist to travel in the gutter with the rubbish, glass, pot holes and broken drain covers is not going to solve anything. Again we need to consult and get people on board as well as build meaningful infrastructure that takes people from A to B without hindrance and impediment (i.e. cycleways that suddenly stop and spit out the unknowing cyclist onto a busy round-about or dual carriageway). We need to learn from cities and busy conurbations that have already done the ground work and simply transfer their trial and error experience into our endeavours.

  4. Cities and citizens need to breathe, linking our parks, building new ones, creating more public space where people can pursue a variety of leisure activities, sport and simply 'hanging out' are the key to making cities good places to live. The more greenery we have the more carbon is captured and the more oxygen is distributed to us mammals. In turn we should maximise wild flora and fauna and encourage both its diversity and abundance. By doing so we would make Liverpool beautiful.

  5. the proposed Clean Air Act is in theory a 'good thing' yet unless enforced it would be toothless. Government policies to date are to the detriment of most people and most living things. 'Rights' are the hard fought results of defeating or repealing oppressive 'wrongs'.

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Sean Robert Weaver

Independent

Air quality in our city is something I have long been passionate about, long before having recently developed asthma. One of my businesses has planted more than 1000 trees across the world in the last 3 years and it is something I am proud of, and still try to build on to this day. I think there are some large, pragmatic steps the city could and should take and hopefully I have elaborated on them below. Forgive me if at times they may seem very specific to our ward, but as that’s where I have lived and worked most of my life, it is where I am most passionate about, whilst of course, it is also a city wide issue, it doesn’t mean what I think we should be doing would only stay in city centre. If we’re talking about public health exclusively to these issues, then for me, my longest wish, is to get the cruise terminal powered up so the ships can turn their engines off when they’re moored up. I’m sure I don’t need to tell someone like yourself, how much NOx a cruise ship can emit, and the fact we’ve been subject to those emissions for so long now, with no action from the council, is in my opinion criminal. That is only one minute piece of the jigsaw, I know, we need to look at everything we can from School Streets to the parking restrictions in place in town, and we really need to look at how parking provision is provided in some of the new builds, we need to get cars off the streets in all manners of the word.

We’re proud to be bold and ambitious with our plan to electrify the city’s hackney fleet, which was a policy developed in conjunction with them, I know you want to see less cars on the road, but Liverpool has one of the lowest car ownership rates in the country in places, and where our bus and train infrastructure lack, our taxis actually play a vital role in our public transport network. Whilst buses and trains are reserved for the LCR Combined Authority, we would work to push and lobby for our residents as much as we can. Buses can do much better, and the new train rolling stock roll out is far too slow. There are places more densely populated around the train network in the city that we should be exploring before Headbolt Lane too for example. What are your thoughts on the Voi scooters and bike scheme? I think they’re great but we need to get them ringfenced better on the GPS so they can’t be rode on the pavements, I remember seeing Voi had been trialing cameras but not heard much else. Active travel in Liverpool must be better, and we need to let the people who use it the most have the most say, not some highways textbook approach. I would like to see a lot more investment in safe, SEGREGATED, bike lanes, paint is not infrastructure nor does it help to work to reduce Liverpool’s shocking KSI stats on the roads for pedestrians and cyclists. I have a track record of fighting to protect our greenspaces and was proud to help restore Roscoe Gardens to a semblance of it’s former glory after campaigning to stop the council giving the space over to a licensed premises that had desecrated the graves there. I believe we can get better with what we are planting and how we are planting it in the city, and there’s some great work done by projects like Urban Green Up that have brought life to many areas of the city centre. We need to build on the great work some of our third sector organisations do too, building on and enhancing the biodiversity of our spaces, and we need to revisit how we plant trees in our civic environment, the tarmac upto the trunk of the trees on Bold Street for example is ridiculous. We need to also make sure we are looking at what we are building home wise, to encourage more use of active travel routes. My ward in particular for example is plagued by parking from non residents or apartment blocks with no parking spaces. Consciously there isn’t one size fits all solution, but lots of little things we need to ALL do, to come together as a city to make our air cleaner - and yes clean air should be a fundamental human right! How is it not already?

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Shelley Williams

The Liberal Party

We agree and hope you have seen our video lobbying for betetr tarnbsports including reopenening the bootle branch line for passenger traffic

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhUQsNq7GWvnrnZyr8_3YOtco2l5

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Philip Adam Williamson

Green Party

Liverpool needs to dramatically improve its roads and move away from 'the car is king attitude' to prioritising active travel and public transport. The city needs a detailed plan to implement a fully integrated segregated cycling network and significant investment to realise the plan over the coming years. That plan should be created with the input of the local cycling community. It also needs to fully plan and budget for not just new rail stations but new rail lines to link up parts of the city which are not properly serviced by the current network.

Once there is safe cycling infrastructure, the city should work with local schools to develop 'bike bus' schemes were parents chaperone groups of children cycling to school to further reduce the congestion during rush hour. Furthermore the city needs to tackle the serious epidemic of dangerous parking, parking enforcement is almost non-existent and as a result a significant number of car drivers have got into thr habit of parking dangerously at junctions and on pavements. This needs to be stamped out by parking fines.

I would implement all of the recommendations made by the Stratigic Green and Open Spaces Review. Its a shame that the oppotunity to turn the city centre flyover into a new high level park in the city center was ignored in favor for semi demolishing the structure. The cities green spaces should be protected at all costs, far too much has been lost under the 'executive housing' assault under the Labour administration. I would like to see the cities green spaces linked together by green corridors where roads between are lined with trees and wildflowers to support biodiversity. Also I think the city should explore the possibility of reducing council tax for residents who 're-green' their gardens and remove AstroTurf and paving. I would also like to see trees and planters being built into residential roads as traffic calming measures since speed bumps are so ineffective these days due to the popularity of SUVs.

I fully support Clean Air bill. What could be more of a human right than the access to clean air and water? I also support the Ecocide law movement to make damage to the environment a criminal offense.

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Green party statement

The Green Party statement provided by numerous candidates is reproduced here:

LIVERPOOL GREEN PARTY STATEMENT ON NEW AIR QUALITY DATA FOR LCR

Liverpool’s Green Party candidates are shocked by the level of air pollution in the city. Previous measurement of air quality in Liverpool only used very sparse measurements from very few points across the city, and then filled in the gaps quite inaccurately. This new data set and modelling, conducted by a team at Imperial College and turned into a handy postcode-based tool by Central Office of Public Interest (https://addresspollution.org) then re-mixed by Clean Air Liverpool (https://cleanairliverpool.org/), more accurately captures the state of air quality locally in Liverpool, and the results are worse than previously thought.

In many areas of the city, the level of nitrous oxide (NO2), and toxic small and small-medium particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) are many times above the World Health Organisation’s safe limits for these pollutants. Elevated levels of NO2 are linked to damage to the human respiratory tract and increased vulnerability to, and the severity of, respiratory infections and asthma. Particulate matter can deposit in the lungs (with smaller particles travelling deeper into lung tissue) leading to aggravation of asthma, respiratory symptoms, and an increase in hospital admissions with respiratory and cardiovascular health issues, as well as increased mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and from lung cancer.

Air pollution kills anywhere from 28–36,000 people in the UK each year; 16-20 times more than road accidents. It increases incidence of stunted lungs (in children), cancer, strokes, lung disease, obesity, bronchitis, and type 2 diabetes. It was estimated in 2020 that in Liverpool alone, 1,000 people a year are killed by toxic air.

These new revelations about Liverpool’s poor air quality also follow in the wake of the drafting of Ella’s law. Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi Debrah died on 15 February 2013, aged 9, as the result of asthma contributed to by excessive air pollution in London. Ella was the first person in England to have air pollution named as a cause of death by a coroner. The law is called the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill, and would force the government to act to improve air quality up to minimum WHO standards in every community, so people no longer have to breathe air that seriously damages their health.

Ella’s Law gained cross-party support in the House of Lords and passed its third reading there, before moving on to the Commons in December last year. Liverpool Green Party candidates fully back the introduction of the bill on both a national and local level. Furthermore, in order to combat poor air quality in Liverpool as soon as possible, we would take the actions laid out in the accompanying policy statement.

More information can be found at:

https://cleanairliverpool.org/ https://ellaslaw.uk/ http://erg.ic.ac.uk/Research/home/projects/Liverpool.html https://airqualitynews.com/2020/01/24/toxic-air-kills-1000-people-a-year-in-liverpool/

LIVERPOOL GREEN PARTY STATEMENT OF POLICES TO MITIGATE AGAINST POOR AIR QUALITY IN LCR

As well as supporting the introduction of Ella’s law (Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill) to hold the government to account on air quality standards, if elected Liverpool Green Party candidates resolve to:

>> Reduce the amount of private petrol/diesel-powered car traffic on the roads by campaigning for an integrated and improved transport system including:

  • Introduction of a £1 single-fare on all bus routes
  • Increased numbers of interconnected active travel routes across the city to encourage cycling/scooters/running/walking as modes of transport
  • Bringing derelict Mersey Rail stations such as St James’s back into service
  • Divestment of public transport systems from fossil fuel produced energy, and bringing transport services under democratic control, with a city-wide contract having defined service quality criteria
  • Further installation of charging points for electric cars in areas where residents lack private drives/garages, and consideration of switching from lamp post to kerb chargers in future to increase availability further
  • The introduction of an Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) in the city centre, with careful consideration that traffic is not just pushed out of the city centre into surrounding suburbs. Ultimate aim of 50% reduction in city centre traffic, and car parking areas being re-zoned as brownfield land for house building over time as required parking capacity is reduced.
  • Consideration of measures such as miniature ULEZs, anti-idling zones, or relocation of pick-up/drop-off zones around schools

>> Reduce the amount of persistent air pollutants from traffic by campaigning for:

  • Mass urban greening along key routes to absorb CO2 and remove particulate matter from the air, and additionally, using specific species of trees/plants which also absorb NO2, one of the major air pollutants in Liverpool. These measures would also shield greenery in our parks and open spaces from the effects of air-pollution, protecting biodiversity
  • Ensuring that all city-centre regeneration projects have urban greening built into them in future, with far more greenery than recent projects such as those outside Lime Street and on the Dock Roads have utilised
  • The reduction of speed limits on key routes from 40 mph to 30 mph, and 30 to 20 mph, where practicable (i.e. where congestion will not increase)

>> Prevent further large-scale introduction of air pollutants by:

  • Supporting expansion of off-shore wind power in the area
  • Opposing expansion of Liverpool John Lennon Airport
  • Opposing expansion of the ferry terminals
  • Opposing expansion of air-polluting industries in Merseyside, and instead encouraging green industries to set up in the area
  • Opposing plans for a Mersey barrage in their current form
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