It's about time we had some good news on shore to ship power at Enderby Wharf. Much of it down to the sterling efforts of Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Limehouse in Tower Hamlets, who is championing our cause. Watch the video of last week’s Parliamentary Select Committee (from 2.52 and 3.40pm) and you’ll see that he has persuaded John Hayes, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, to raise the issue of electric power at Enderby Wharf when the government proposes new modelling plans for pollution in the Spring. Mr Hayes said, ‘Because they (shipping) have to respond to rapid changing market conditions … goal posts can be moved very rapidly. We need mechanisms that are just as dynamic. I don’t think it’s there now. I think we need to do it.’ This is a significant step forward, as it means those in government with the power to alter legislation will be aware that the Enderby Cruise Ship Terminal, and shipping emissions in general, are a threat to our health. Not just in London, but in and around ports all over the UK. Why was the meeting held? Sadly the select committee wasn’t held because the government had a change of heart. They were forced to discuss plans for combatting pollution after ClientEarth won a case against them in the High Court in November over their failure to tackle illegal air pollution. The court ruled that ministers’ plans to tackle illegal levels of air pollution in many UK cities and towns were so poor they were unlawful. What’s the time scale? They are now being forced to deliver an effective plan to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis within eight months. Initially the government refused the eight-month timetable, saying it needed until September next year. But they have been ordered to produce a draft plan by April 2017 and a final plan by the end of July 2017. In a damning indictment of ministers’ inaction on killer air pollution, Mr Justice Garnham agreed with ClientEarth that the Environment Secretary had failed to take measures that would bring the UK into compliance with the law “as soon as possible”, adding that ministers knew that over optimistic pollution modelling was being used. Who is in charge? At the start of the committee, Jim Fitzpatrick, former Minister of Shipping, asked one very simple but explosive question, ‘Who’s in charge? It doesn’t appear to be shipping, it doesn’t seem to be air quality; it doesn’t seem to be the Mayor or the GLA.’ It’s become clear that no one in government has responsibility for the pollution that comes from river traffic, or the power to compel the developers to install an electric power supply. What does this mean post Brexit? This is especially worrying post-Brexit when no one knows if we'll be following EU pollution directives. If there's a ‘soft’ Brexit we may, but if there's a hard’ Brexit we could find ourselves at the mercy of a government who’ve so far proven themselves woefully inadequate when it comes to introducing and enforcing new anti-pollution initiatives. At the meeting Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for the Environment in London, confirmed that the Mayor has no power over the Thames, though she added that he has asked for those powers. She said, ‘In London half the emissions at the moment are from non-transport; from shipping, from construction, from construction machinery … that’s a very significant amount, so whilst the focus has been on transportation … the Mayor has been asking for a twenty first century Clean Air Act to give him the powers to enable to regulate and enforce emissions from construction, machinery and the Thames.’ However, asked by Jim Fitzpatrick if there had been any response from government, Ms Rodrigues admitted that, based on a conversation they had with the Air Quality Minister, ‘they weren’t envisaging any primary legislation’, which she added was ‘a disappointment’. What is ClientEarth’s opinion? Alan Andrews, Clean Air Project Leader at ClientEarth said, ‘It is really important that the revised plan look at all the sources of pollution in each city. And it certainly seems to us that DEFRA took a far too crude approach which just basically said it’s road transport so we’re not going to look at these other sources.’ He mentioned ‘major emissions from shipping in Southampton’ and concluded that any future-plans for Clean Air Zones must factor in other sources of pollution, notably shipping – ‘not just road transport’. Fortunately, John Hayes, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, (watch from 15.40) promised to develop a new air quality plan that proposes ‘specific additional measures’. However, he admitted that as Minister for Transport he has no jurisdiction over The Thames, which falls between the cracks. Is the government willing to fill in those cracks? The short answer seems to be no. Therese Coffey, MP, appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs in July, was unsympathetic. Initially she agreed that she didn’t want to play local and central government against each other. But when talking about the plans for the Enderby terminal, Ms Coffey insisted that, as Greenwich Council had made the decision to go ahead, they must have factored in environmental concerns. It was left to Jim Fitzpatrick to explain the bigger picture, ‘This is not a decision which just affects Greenwich. It affects Tower Hamlets, which is my side of the river. It affects all the surrounding boroughs and it affects the whole of London. This is a London-wide issue.‘ Ms Coffey also cited the former Mayor's failure to call in planning permission. Seemingly unaware that the former Mayor, Boris Johnson, didn’t have the power to call it in. She also seemed unaware that Greenwich’ Labour Councillors were coerced into voting alongside the Leader of the Council, Denise Hyland, who also sat on the Planning Board. (The only Head of the Council to do so in 33 London boroughs and who regularly influences decisions about major new developments, which many contend should be illegal. Indeed, her stance on the planning board earned her mention on various websites and blogs including Private Eye! See https://greenwich.greenparty.org.uk/news/2015/09/02/enderby-wharf-the-toxic-terminal/ and https://853blog.com/2015/08/19/greenwich-council-leader-makes-her-debut-in-private-eye/) Ultimately, Neil Parish, the Chair of the Environment Select Committee, summed up. He said, ‘I think you’ll find that if you drill down on the way the decision was made, it was made not on the environmental side – it was made on other economic considerations. If you’ve got your planning officer who sits in front of you and says if you actively hold up application because you insist on electric supply for all the cruise ships that come in you’re going to be taken to court, to be taken for costs … you can’t do it. It’s a no brainer really. You’ve got all these cruise ships coming into London and they’ve got to keep their engines running in order to get power. Now is this logical in the twenty first century? It’s not and it’s no good. In a way, you’ve played into our hands from your opening statement. Because you said quite clearly that you’re not playing one (local v central govt.) against the other.’ This is an absolute case where is we all work together we can deliver electric supply.’ We have Neil Parish, Jim Fitzpatrick, Sadiq Khan, Shirley Rodrigues and ClientEarth on our side. The political will is there. Hopefully Therese Coffey is simply unfamiliar with the case having only been appointed in July. Hopefully she will take the time to drill down. Hopefully, she will use her PhD in Chemistry to consider the fact that current legislation governing cruise vessels on the Thames only covers sulphur content in fuel - not NO2. NO2 is the ‘silent killer’. Visit ClientEarth’s site http://www.clientearth.org/uk-top-three-air-pollution-deaths-europe/ and you’ll see a report issued in November shows that the UK has one of the highest levels of premature deaths from nitrogen dioxide air pollution in the EU. And although the government have put in an application for emission controls on Nitrogen oxide (NOx), if it’s accepted it won’t come into effect till 1 January 2021! What happens at Enderby between now and then? People live nearby. Children go to school nearby. This isn’t about economics. It’s about our health. Nearly 9,500 people die early every year in London due to long-term exposure to air pollution. As Neil Parish said, ‘It’s a no brainer.’ Shore-to-ship electric power is the only solution. For more on Client Earth’s High Court win see http://www.clientearth.org/major-victory-health-uk-high-court-government-inaction-air-pollution/ * DEFRA (The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) Who’s Who: Neil Parish, Chair of the Environment Select Committee Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Limehouse Alan Andrews, Lawyer and Clean Air Project Leader, ClientEarth Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy to the Mayor of London Therese Coffey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs Rt Hon John Hayes MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport (DEFRA)