Islington Green Party responded to the inaugural journey of the Major’s new bus through Islington by slamming the fact that the money spent on this vanity project is delaying the wider fight against life threatening levels of air pollution on our streets.
While TfL claim the new the bus has some good green credentials, they have not released all the test results and there are still questions to be asked as to why this bus is considered such a great improvement. These 8 buses are costing 9.6million and at the same time Boris has quietly dropped his pledge that that all new buses from 2012 onwards would be hybrids, which produce much less air pollution
This year TFL plan to introduce 800 buses, but only 52 will be hybrids, less than last year. If the money hadn’t been spent on the new bus we could have a total of 148 hybrids.
Caroline Allen Green Party London Assembly Candidate for Islington said ‘residents of Islington will not be impressed to hear that their health is being sacrificed for an expensive publicity stunt for the Mayoral campaign. We know that people are suffering from respiratory and cardiac diseases in Islington due to levels of air pollution exceeding EU limits and that children are disproportionately affected. More hybrid buses are a simple step the Mayor can take’.
Caroline Russell Islington campaigner for safer streets added "The Greens have been campaigning long and hard to reduce air pollution as we know its a silent killer: across London more than 4000 people are dying per year, this is a shocking figure. Yet we have an incumbant Mayor and his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who prefer to engage in publicity stunts than to address a devastating health issue. London needs more elected Greens, to take principled decisions in the best interests of residents."