Wandsworth Council on the look out for Air Quality Ambassadors

Wandsworth, one of the more pro-active councils when it comes to air quality, are calling for volunteers to join their Air Quality Ambassador’s programme which will begin its work next month.

March last year saw the first meeting of the Wandsworth Citizens’ Assembly, a group made up of of 50 randomly selected residents, who met up for four full days to discuss air quality issue in the borough. 

Wandsworth Council’s Clean Air Night stall yesterday

After 30 hours of discussions across those Sunday, the assembly came up with 53 recommendations to clean up the air, improve people’s health and tackle climate change. 

The third most important recommendation, according to the group, concerned education, with the group observing that ‘not enough people are aware of the scale of the problem in Wandsworth and that it affects everyone.’

It was felt that local residents and guest speakers could be used to spread the word about air quality issues, informing secondary schools, faith communities and workplaces.

The Ambassador’s programme will cover the following areas:

• Citizens Science: Support residents and community groups that want to start to monitor and understand air quality in their areas.
• Engagement and information: Share information so people can understand and relate to the issues.
• Reaching out to vulnerable groups: Get information to the most vulnerable about the impact of air pollution and how this can be mitigated.
• Events and campaigns: Join council events and perhaps organise your own with our support.
  Idling: Identifying areas of concern for signage, banners and interventions.
• Scrutiny of the Plan: Challenge and scrutinise our Air Quality Action Plan so that it is robust and we are help accountable for what’s in our control.
• Keeping up to date: Help ensure the plan moves with the changes in technology and understanding of local air pollution.

Cllr. Jamie Colclough, Air Quality Champion for Wandsworth, said the aim now is to ensure residents continue to have the opportunity to help shape and scrutinise the council’s approach to cleaning up the air and to get the support of local people in delivering key parts of the plan.

‘The Citizen’s Assembly was vital to our work of looking at the problem of poor air quality and coming up with solutions as a borough. Now we want to replicate that energy and enthusiasm and harness the knowledge and goodwill of local people to ensure we keep up the momentum.’