Raising air pollution awareness in Brent
Pupils at Furness Primary with their air pollution artwork. Image: Amandine Alexandre.
After a successful collaboration with three schools in Lambeth in 2021, Mums for Lungs and Lin Kam Art are very pleased to have extended our air pollution art project to Brent in North West London this year.
Brent is a borough divided by the North Circular and currently only partially covered by the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), an area of London where drivers of the most polluting diesel and petrol vehicles are charged £12.50 to drive within the zone.
Asthma rates are high in Brent. Public Health England has found that the borough has the second-highest number of emergency hospital admissions for asthma for adults in London. Brent is also sixth-highest in London when it comes to children's hospital admissions.
That is one of the reasons why we decided to bid for a council grant at the end of last January to organise workshops in four primary schools there.
The project, led by local air pollution campaigner Amandine Alexandre and local artist and educator Linett Kamala - was one of eight environmental projects voted by Brent residents as part of the first round of #YouDecide, a participatory budgeting experiment.
So far this year, three Brent schools have benefited from the air pollution workshops.
Pupils from Year 4 at Furness Primary School in Harlesden unveiled the text-based artwork created with Linett on May 3rd, and made front-page news in the Brent and Kilburn Times the same week!
Image: Linett Kamala
Year 3 pupils from Park Lane Primary School inaugurated their artwork on May 24th in Wembley Hill in the presence of two of Wembley Hill councillors.
As for Year 5 pupils from Mitchell Brook, they delivered their message about the need to reduce air pollution in the borough to one elected representative for Stonebridge ward on June 13th, just three days ahead of Clean Air Day.
Clean air artwork unveiling outside Park Lane Primary School in Wembley Hill on May 24th. Image: Linett Kamala
Artist Linett Kamala who led the workshops says that “the interest displayed by children in the project has been striking.” “They have been eager to find out about the impact of air pollution on their health and make a call for action through their artwork ”, adds the director of Lin Kam Art.
“Using art has proved a very powerful tool to kick start a much needed conversation about the need to reduce road traffic in Brent, with children but also their teachers and their parents”, comments clean air campaigner Amandine Alexandre.
Pupil at Park Lane Primary. Image: Amandine Alexandre Clean air workshop at Mitchell Brook Primary School. Image: Mitchell Brook Primary School
Brent is one of the boroughs that could be fully covered by the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) by August 29th 2023 as a result of the ongoing consultation by TFL on the second expansion of the ULEZ.
TFL estimates that 145 schools across London would benefit from cleaner air as the result of the potential second ULEZ expansion. Londoners are being asked to take part in the consultation by July 29th.