The government has finally published a plan to tackle pollution that completely fails to tackle shipping, never mind Enderby Wharf. Ralph Hardwick, local campaigner says, “I'm extremely disappointed. Air quality planning has completely failed to address ship emissions in the UK. Due to DEFRA's failure (Dept of the Environment) the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) are at liberty to do whatever they see fit. The Government should not be abdicating this responsibility to an outside agency - especially when we are suffering from the impacts of shipping emissions within the UK.” Mr Hardwick is urgently trying to arrange a meeting with the Mayor of London to draft a new plan to reduce shipping emissions in London. There is a Clean Air Bill brought forward by MP Geraint Davies. This should be adopted. One that mandates that ships when moored must connect to an onshore power supply. Read the attached article from the Independent. You'll see that apparently the government's plan is merely to have a plan! Experts claim that about 40,000 early deaths in the UK are linked to air pollution. Yet this is how the government has chosen to outline their policy on ships. It reads: ‘The UK Government has encouraged ports to design new developments so that the necessary equipment could be installed without undue cost and disruption, should it be decided in future to install shore-side electricity. ‘ ‘Should / encourage’! What good will that do? We can all be encouraged to eat salad. That doesn’t mean we’ll do it. There needs to be a clear mandate in law. Here is the offending section from Annex G, on p 71 of the Government’s Environment Plan: 205. Connecting ships and other vessels to on shore electricity supply at ports and marinas can help reductions in pollutant emissions through alleviating the need for on board energy generation. 206. The UK Government has encouraged ports to design new developments so that the necessary equipment could be installed without undue cost and disruption, should it be decided in future to install shore-side electricity. For port development, especially for nationally significant infrastructure projects as defined in the Planning Act 2008, the National Policy Statement for Ports82 provides that proposed developments should at least make reasonable advance provision for shore-side supply or explain why this would not be economically and environmentally worthwhile. 207. There are opportunities for existing development to explore the opportunities for shore-side electricity supply connections and further reduce emissions at port side. A technical standard for onshore electricity supply connections has been agreed.83 This should provide confidence for those investing in these facilities that there is a common standard across the industry. The UK Government will continue to encourage ports and shipping companies to examine the opportunities available, particularly in areas identified as having poor air quality.