Ken Livingstone was in Edmonton yesterday highlighting election pledges to tackle air pollution, and hearing from pupils at Eldon School about their award winning environmental projects.
The school is multiple winner of the London Schools Environment Awards which were set up by the Mayor in 2003 to increase and develop children’s sense of responsibility for their environment.
Speaking yesterday Mr Livingstone praised the pupils for their “fantastic” work adding “often it is younger Londoners who are most concerned about the environment and are pushing their parents to be more environmentally responsible. We owe it to children like those at Eldon school – and to all Londoners – to do everything we can to improve the quality of the air we breathe.”
Mr Livingstone claimed more than a million Londoners live in areas “with levels of air pollution that are dangerous to health, with children and older people most affected.”
“That is why in January we introduced the London Low Emission Zone to reduce harmful emissions from lorries, and the most polluting coaches and buses. My manifesto pledges that if I am re-elected I will extend this zone to cover all lorries over three and a half tonnes and, in 2010, heavier vans.”
