ODA air quality non-compliance could raise budget with £300m EU fine
In a long running story already reported on Games Monitor the green credentials of the 2012 Olympics have come under further strain as the Olympic Delivery Authority continues to refuse to fit polluting non road mobile machinery (NRMM) with exhaust after treatment. While the rest of the UK has complied with European air quality standards London has failed to do so.
This failure rests, in part, on the shoulders of the ODA which has refused to fit filters to cut particulate emissions. In doing so it has also defied the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who required construction sites to follow his office’s best practice guidance. The UK now faces a possible fine of up to £300million at the hands of the European Union, which would have to be counted as a further contribution to the Olympic budget.
Despite claiming to be keen to follow best practice the ODA has, in practice, been stalling on this for well over a year. It has ignored a House of Commons Early Day Motion put down in January 2009 and criticism from the Environmental Industries Commission. Instead of complying the ODA has been conducting a desk study on the issue. According to reports it seems by the time it gets round to fitting the necessary filters, probably in the summer of 2010, two years after it should have acted, the polluting machinery will have left the site.
The ODA is already notorious for its lack of pollution controls at Clays Lane and Leabank Square. As the Statutorily created planning and development control authority the ODA is effectively unaccountable to anyone but itself. According to the ODA website ‘as a public body, the ODA is accountable to Government, the GLA and other stakeholders for its work’. Plainly its stakeholders are unwilling or unable to hold it to account as they should.
Submitted by Julian Cheyne on Wed, 10/02/2010 - 03:02.
Article | 2012 Construction | 2012 Sustainability | Environment | Health | Planning & Development
Air quality breaches around the Olympic site
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Wed, 17/02/2010 - 12:12.
From a debate in the House of Lords 5 January 2010
"I am afraid that that is just one concern that I have about air quality issues. My noble friend Lord Faulkner of Worcester said in his opening remarks that the Olympics are breaking new grounds of sustainability in a healthy and enjoyable environment. I hope he is right. Sadly, however, there are serious problems of air quality in the Stratford area and in London generally which, unless they are tackled urgently by the Government and the Mayor, could mean that the main Olympic site will be in breach of air quality limits during the Olympics. Do we want them to be called the high-pollution Olympics? I hope not."
Lord Berkeley (Labour)
More at: They Work for You
[Recent] "Figures from London Air Quality Network below are samples of a few of the worst spots for Nitrogen Dioxide emissions (EU limits in brackets)." [ug/m3 means, microgrammes/millionths of a gramme, per cubic metre]
- City, Wallbrook Wharf: 765 (18)[? should read (40ug/m3) as below]
- Hackney-Shoreditch, Old St: 59 (40ug/m3)
- Greenwich, A12 Woolwich Flyover: 74 (40ug/m3)
- Blackwall Tunnel: 63 (40ug/m3)
- Mile End: 61 (40ug/m3)
- Hackney-Clapton: 51 (40ug/m3)
Excerpt from: Hackney Gazette
Air quality measures from an automatic sensing site at Cam Rd in Stratford show that the yearly average for 2009 for levels of Nitrogen Dioxide were 66ug/m3. The Government's Air Quality Objective acceptable maximum is 40ug/m3.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into air quality in the UK. The purpose of the inquiry is to assess whether the Government is developing an effective strategy for meeting its obligations under the EU Air Quality Directives. The Committee will also examine whether the strategy is enough to ensure that air pollution is reduced to acceptable levels across all the UK.
» reply
by
ODA's environmental contractual breach
This places London in further breach of the Olympic Host City Contract Section 21, "Environmental Protection":
The UK was already in breach with its failure to comply with EU Air Quality Directive targets.