According to figures provided by the London Air Quality Network, London exceeded its limit in the first eight days of 2016.

London Air Pollution Limit Exceeded 

Some parts of London have already breached the hourly limit for air pollution set by the EU – just over a week into the new year and a few weeks after the government announced plans to clean up the UK’s air. EU regulations stipulate that concentrations of nitrogen dioxide should not exceed.

London Air Pollution Limit

It’s estimated that Oxford Street has also broken air pollution limits, however devices put into place to measure pollution are being repaired and therefore limits have not been recorded. In 2015, it exceeded the limit after a mere two days into the year.

The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants has estimated that around 60,000 deaths per year are attributed to poor air quality and around 9,500 of these deaths have been in London. Particulate pollution has been blamed by Public Health England as being the cause of around 30,000 premature deaths in the UK per year. A spokesman for the mayor of London’s office has said “The mayor is leading the most ambitious and comprehensive package of measures in the world to improve London’s air quality. His recent £10m bus retrofit programme has led to a sustained reduction in NO2 concentrations on Putney High Street.” There are plans to introduce an ultra low emission zone into central London, but this will only be introduced in 2020 and does not intend to ban heavily polluting vehicles from central London, but rather charge them £100 per day for driving inside the zone.

Outside of London; Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Edinburgh and a number of other major UK cities are expected to be in breach of NO2 limits for another five years, even though new government plans have been drawn up to combat pollution.