Strong health grounds for widening Ulez very soon, says toxic air expert

Go and see effects of toxic air on children in your local hospital, urges expert

- Ross Lydall

ONE of the world’s top experts on the effects of toxic air today insisted there were strong health grounds for expanding the ultra-low emission zone.

Professor Frank Kelly, of Imperial College London, spoke out as five Tory councils confirmed they were taking High Court action against Mayor Sadiq Khan’s allegedly “unlawful” expansion of Ulez to the Greater London boundary.

The councils — Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon and Surrey county council — claim there has been a “false scare over air quality” and that Ulez will have “negligible or nil impact” on toxic air in the suburbs. But Professor Kelly, director of a group of academics who revealed the number of Londoners dying prematurely from air pollution, insisted widening the Ulez "as soon as possible" would improve the health of the capital.

In an interview with the Standard, he challenged critics to visit their local hospital to see the impact toxic air has on children. He said: "Take the time to go along to your local hospital and go into the respiratory wards and see the kids with asthma, who are having real difficulty breathing, and their parents not knowing what is going to happen."