7 September 2023 Hounslow Council is currently consulting on their Air Quality Action Plan. The consultation period closes on 13 September 2023. Have your say here.
Please see our written response from Air Quality Brentford:
Greening and watering
Greening seems to be an after thought in the report, and just for major roads. We would like to see the priority for Greening raised much higher. Green infrastructure needs to be hugely increased and specifically in relation to improving air quality, on smaller residential roads as well as major roads. The Council could encourage residents to green their front gardens. Vauxhall is a great example of a very busy area with traffic and yet the roads around there have so much greenery, and are looked after by the Council which means they can be maintained. Air Quality Brentford has carried out 10 planting projects but it depends totally on the time, effort and energy of residents who live near the particular projects and as such some of the projects have struggled. It would be great if the Council could put far more resources in to greening Brentford, adding pockets of planting wherever possible, greening the grey, and then maintaining them so they survive and thrive and can be of benefit to our town. Greening also encourages walking as it provides a more inviting environment. We encourage Hounslow Council to increase funding in this area to plant and maintain this resource, now and in the future.
We ask that the Council continues to plant even more trees, for air quality in particular, and to act as shade as climate change increases temperatures in cities in particular. It’s a fact that trees reduce temperatures in streets and parks as well as creating shade for refuge from the heat of the sun. These also provide much needed homes for insects which are in decline and to support biodiversity. The effort to plant more trees needs to continue.
The Council needs to provide resources for water harvesting schemes so that pocket parks and greening projects can be made more sustainable. Could the Council commit to piloting a number of different approaches? Air Quality Brentford could offer to participate to help maintain our planting projects across Brentford.
Traffic speed
We continue to ask and campaign to lower the speed limit of traffic on the A4 running through the residential part of Brentford to be restricted to 30mph. This would significantly lower the NO2 and particulates on this busy arterial route. Could the Council work with TfL to enforce this or even run a trial and see how it effects pollution?
Vehicles
The Council’s own recycling vehicles are still highly polluting for residents and for their workers. Please could you accelerate the change to zero-emission vehicles for this purpose?
The buses running through Brentford are still terribly polluting, pumping out pollutants on the pavements on residential streets as they drive. These buses need to zero-emission as soon as possible. It’s heart-breaking to think that a public service like this is also so harmful to human health. The Council is doing a lot but this is very important and it’s listed no 86 of 90. Could action and priority be brought forward please?
Further addressing of idling vehicles both by the public and especially by Hounslow Council vehicles. It’s unnecessary and can be addressed easily by educating drivers.
WHO guidelines
In the 2018 in the London Environment Strategy, the Mayor committed to meeting the WHO’s previous recommended guideline values, published in 2005, across London by 2030. Additionally in September 2021, prior to the World Health Organisation’s revision of its recommended guideline limits, Hounslow Council committed to working towards the 2005 WHO guidelines for all three pollutants, which 2022 data shows is being exceeded slightly (see table 1 below).
Following the revision of the WHO guidelines to much more stringent levels, pollution levels in Hounslow are exceeding the new guidelines and so a key area of the action plan’s focus is to help the Mayor meet the 2030 target and work towards the new WHO guidelines.
We are grateful that Hounslow Council is committing to meet the new more stringent WHO guidelines on pollution levels.
Focus Areas
The A4 (Great West Road) in Brentford is also an area with high levels of pollution in Hounslow and is also considered a focus area for improving air quality along with those listed above.
Could this area please be officially added to the Focus Areas for there are 6 areas in total and the area be added to map so that it is included in this initiative?
Reporting to Directors of Public Health
Ensure that the Directors of Public Health (DsPHs) have been fully briefed on the scale of the air pollution problem in our local authority area; what is being done, and what is needed. Director of Public Health to sign off Statutory Annual Status Reports and all new Air Quality Action Plans.
Could this be a bi-yearly meeting, every 6 months to keep more abreast of the situation? Once a year seems too little?
Doctors and medical specialists
Strengthening coordination with Public Health by ensuring that at least one Consultant grade public health specialist within the borough understands air pollution issues and routes to mitigation. This can either be achieved through training or recruitment.
Please ensure that every health practitioner in the borough needs to know the impact of air pollution. The borough is too widespread and the issue is too pressing for just one person to be responsible for this.
Smoke Control Areas
Where will the Smoke Control Areas be? Could you work somehow in partnership with residents who might already have or use wood-burning stoves to limit their use or suggest ways they can use their burners in a safe way, eg https://www.directstoves.com/resources/how-to-have-a-wood-burning-stove-in-a-smoke-control-area/
April 2020 Air quality in Brentford has improved on the whole during the Coronavirus pandemic with a vast reduction in traffic travelling along the M4 and A4 arterial routes. Hounslow Council employ Ricardo to do their air quality monitoring and you can look at the results and make graphs such as this at 
Saturday 4 May 2019 Thanks so much to 
26 February 2019, Holiday Inn, Brentford Hounslow Council have set up a Working Group to focus on ways they can improve air quality, and protect local residents, especially those with vulnerabilities like children and people with existing underlying health issues. Air Quality Brentford was one of the community groups asked to attend this for their input. The public meeting followed in the afternoon. Here is a brief summary of some of the speakers. 
Air Quality Brentford 