Hear from three local parents and environmental activists about the dangers of air pollution and its effect on children

Hear from three local parents and environmental activists about the dangers of air pollution and its effect on our children. Come and plan together what we can do to stop our air making our children ill.

Speakers:

David Smith

Founder of Little Ninja UK whose mission is to help parents uncover the truth about the harmful level of air pollution, monitor air quality and take action.

Cllr Fleur Anderson

Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Putney, Southfields and Roehampton

Cllr Jo Rigby

Local councillor and air pollution activist

Parents are more and more concerned about the dangerous levels of NO2 gas which comes from diesel traffic. These are at especially high levels during the school run which young children are close to the fumes. Children's lungs in some parts of London have been found to be permanently damaged by this dirty air. Keeping away from the kerb side reduces the impact, but we need to do more.

David Smith, aka Little Ninja, is a local parent and working with Unicef UK to raise awareness about air pollution. He has been measuring pollution on Putney High Street and West Hill and will be sharing his findings.

Fleur Anderson has been cycling with her four children since they were born and campaigned on environmental issues around the world and locally. She campaigned successfully to bring in the Wandsworth-wide 20mph limit. This has reduced pollution and increased safety, but there is much more to do.

Cllr Jo Rigby is campaigning for safer streets where her children attend school locally, and also for the council to make our streets places cycle and walking friendly across Wandsworth.

At the meeting we'll be sharing lots of ideas, including two practical ways we can make a difference locally:

Play streets: neighbours agree together to temporarily but regularly close their street to through traffic, making a safe space for children to play while adults share a cup of tea and chat. There are two routes to having a play street: play street application (for regular closure) or street party application (for a one-off, eg for car free day on 22nd September).

School streets: this is the closure of the street to through traffic (not for access to homes) every school day for 40 minutes at morning drop off and afternoon pick up times. There will be five pilot schools in Wandsworth coming soon, and Hackney Borough has successfully made school streets around several schools. Could any of our local schools join in too?

The meeting is organised by Putney Labour Party and open to everyone.

May 14, 2019