The Mayor of London recently stated that ULEZ expansion, to places like Havering, has vastly improved our air quality. Citing improvements by as much as 20%, the Mayor has since been criticised for not breaking the data down by borough.
Havering, as a whole, is an anti-ULEZ borough. Many of our residents and politicians claim the air here is already good. ULEZ is viewed as a tax on those who can't afford a fancy new car. I, personally, want cleaner air but have been unconvinced that ULEZ will actually deliver that.
So, we want to see the data specific to Havering.
I have it, I'm publishing it.
I was involved in email chains where Cllrs Morgon and Ford were discussing the ULEZ data with Conservatives in City Hall. Khan's team were being awkward and not providing it.
How have I managed to get it and what does it say? Did people not want this data published?
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Getting the data
My suggestion to the team was simple, ask for a breakdown in the data by each specific monitoring station. Don't ask, as they did, for it broken down by Havering.
TFl, when asked for it being Havering specific, said they didn't break it down that way. They weren't lying. But, of course they have the data for each monitoring station. We can then pick out those in Havering ourselves.
Simple!
So how did I get this mysterious, difficult to find, data?
I made a single phone call to City Hall, and was instantly sent a link by email.
Guess what, the data was already in the public domain and is already published!
If you want to look at and analyse the data yourself then you can, on the link below. But, I've also pulled the reports and attached them below with some analysis.
All you have to do is this, select the monitoring station you want to see!
What are the results
Well for us who hate ULEZ, we will be a bit gutted (but we shouldn't be). Since the introduction of ULEZ expansion our air quality is improving.
Havering specifically, is improving.
Headlines:
Since ULEZ expansion Nitrogen Dioxide (red) and Pm10 particles (blue) levels have reduced. Here's the chart for the monitoring station in Romford, showing the daily average reading.
There is a clear improvement.
Havering's other monitoring station, based in Rainham, measures more. Such as the more dangerous PM2.5 particles. Also down.
So, since ULEZ expansion, Havering's air quality has improved. Based on the two monitoring stations we have.
Data concerns
But we've only got two monitoring stations, people will say.
Valid, yes. But, those we do have show an improvement.
But maybe things had already improved? Cars get newer and cleaner... etc
Agreed. But, you can spend hours trawling this data and it'll only ever show that things got better after ULEZ expansion.
I've gone through the data for hours. Comparing since 2018 - 2024. Guess what, improvements, even larger. I've gone with taking specific weeks, to account for travel patterns due to holidays etc. Guess what, always an improvement since ULEZ.
I've done a data dump below. 5 years worth, of both Havering's monitoring stations, for everything they read. Go check it out yourself.
I despise ULEZ. I think it is a cruel and regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest.
But, I can no longer deny that it has cleaned up Romford's and Havering's air.
Data dump
Daily averages, for every pollutant measured, between 29th August 2019 and 29th August 2024. For Romford and Rainham.
Graphs:
Rainham
Romford:
Files:
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