Havering’s Crucial Air Quality Action Plan Delayed Yet Again.

News from Havering Friends of the Earth.

Havering should have had an updated Air Quality Action Plan in 2023. But it’s been put on hold yet again by the council’s Havering Residents’ Association administration. And now we’re in 2026. We have been told that this urgent unfinished business is now being left till after the May council elections.

Havering Friends of the Earth has been calling for an updated Air Quality Action Plan for over two years. This is a statutory requirement which we as Havering Friends of the Earth believe the council has recklessly chosen to ignore.

To say that the finalisation and implementation of this plan is crucial, is almost an understatement. We have in this borough one of the most catastrophic air pollution disasters in the country in the Rainham Launders Lane landfill devastation. Local residents are breathing in toxic fumes whenever the frequent fires occur at thissite. There are also other air pollution hotspots in Havering.

Havering Friends of the Earth delivered a response to the council draft plan in December. It listed why the proposed new plan was thoroughly inadequate.

There are no plans for particulate air pollution mitigation measures for nurseries, schools or care homes. This is urgently needed where premises are adjacent to static traffic.

There are no plans for increased monitoring of the most damaging air pollution particulate, PM 2.5. There is only one monitor in this borough at present. All hotspots need to be monitored for PM 2.5.

Health impacts of air pollution are acknowledged in the plan but not acted upon. The introduction of the ULEZ has improved air quality but Havering proposes no health analysis of its vulnerable population. Environmental health staff have been lost and yet this critical public health issue is not seen as an urgent matter.

The draft plan details actions which are ‘ongoing’ but have no timescales and therefore cannot be pinned down. This lack of urgency is very worrying.

At last week’s Green Forum, the procrastination over the Air Quality Action Plan was drawn to the meeting’s attention by Havering Friends of the Earth.

We all now know about the health impacts of breathing toxic air and its damaging effect on the health of the elderly and our young children.

What is so disappointing is that the council, who are responsible for our public health, have treated this crucial issue with callous disregard and neglect.

Why are children and the vulnerable people in our borough being denied the necessary action needed with these serious health concerns?

Our council should be doing all it can to improve air quality. The constant delays to the updating of the Air Quality Action Plan, and the inadequate draft which has only recently been disseminated, indicates a monumental disregard for one of its most importantroles in local government.

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