MAYOR Boris Johnson has been ticked off by his 'green' namesake on the London Assembly over bad air.’ He got a wrap from Assembly and Green Party member Darren Johnson for not extending the tough Low Emission’ zone to include small lorries and vans

By Mike Brooke

MAYOR Boris Johnson has been ticked off by his 'green' namesake on the London Assembly over bad air.’

He got a wrap from Assembly and Green Party member Darren Johnson for not extending the tough Low Emission’ zone to include small lorries and vans.

Johnson called Boris “irresponsible” for postponing the extension in the face of London’s air pollution which he says still breaches EU quality control laid down three years ago to improve the stuff we breathe each day.

The Tower Hamlets monitoring site at Blackwall, in East London, had 121 bad air’ days in the last two years showing dirt particles in the air exceeding the EU limit, he points out.

“This is the height of irresponsibility and an absolute disaster for the East End,” stormed Darren.

“The Mayor is talking green’ while condemning Tower Hamlets to continued pollution and the premature deaths which have been linked to poor air quality.

“The decision to postpone extending the zone also opens the way for the European Commission to succeed in its legal action against the Government for failing to protect public health.”

But the Greens don't only have Tory Boris in their gun sights. Darren also fired off a salvo at Labour.

“The Government has failed for the past 10 years to take proper action,” he added. “This is resulting in Britain’s air pollution not improving fast enough to meet legally-binding targets.”

Darren Johnson has written to the EU’s environment commissioner welcoming the start of infringement proceedings against the Government for failing to comply with air quality limit values. The Blackwall monitoring site had 60 bad air’ days last year and 61 the year before.