Enderby Wharf has had a makeover. It’s now ‘Maritime View’. As Morgan Stanley and Barratt Developments have decided not to continue with the site, perhaps the agents, JLL, are hoping that a change of name will change local feeling towards the toxic terminal? After all ‘Maritime View’ conjures up images of sail boats, waterside living and blue skies. Not giant cruise liners belching out particulate matter and grade one carcinogens opposite homes and schools. It beggars belief that in the midst of all the anti-pollution rhetoric and new ideas about how to cut down emissions, Greenwich Council are inviting giant cruise liners into the heart of London, But then, perhaps it's a twisted scheme to make some money for the beloved but beleaguered NHS in fines? In 2019 motorists driving diesel cars in London will have to pay £24 a day to drive through central London. Right now vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes that don’t meet Euro 4 regulations are issued penalty notices of £1000 for entering into a Low Emission Zone. Based on the same logic we could levy a £688,000 charge per cruise ship. As one cruise liner emits the same toxic fumes as 688 lorries, every time one docks in London it could pay a charge of £688,000. And with 55 ships anticipated should the port go ahead, it could prove a nice little earner at just under £38 million annually. It would certainly help the NHS deal with the 9,500 premature deaths caused by diesel pollution in this country every year. To date, however, no one in City Hall has mentioned the idea. Though in May 2016 Sadiq Khan promised to help local residents vehemently opposed to the cruise liners: “I think neither the council, nor the residents of the local businesses want there to be this massive cruise liner putting out bad fumes in the area. “I’m looking forward to working with them, and seeing if we can get some resolution.” Presumably this is still in the pipeline. In the meantime our hopes rest with Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove, to whom locals from both sides of the river have written a letter asking for action. Appointed in June 2017, he’s promised that the UK will be better off outside the EU. At the Conservative Party Conference he said, "We can do what we think is best to make our country cleaner, greener and more beautiful." Pledging to deliver a "green Brexit", he argued that the UK had been handed a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to determine its own environmental policies. Great. Let's insist on ship to shore power at Greenwich now. Or, failing that, abandon the port altogether. And please, let's not be in a position where we have to alert children when the air is too dirty to be able to play outside. Please follow the website www.EGRA.London and twitter feed at @EGRA_London for details of the ongoing campaign. Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4378412/Diesel-drivers-face-tax-triple-whammy-new-parking-fee.html https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/07/uk-government-sued-for-third-time-over-deadly-air-pollution?CMP=share_btn_tw https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/21/high-court-rules-uk-air-pollution-plans-unlawful http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/14505068.new-mayor-sadiq-khan-will-seek-resolution-over-controversial-enderby-wharf/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/15/diesel-emissions-test-scandal-causes-38000-early-deaths-year-study https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/deliveries-in-london/delivering-safely/safer-lorry-scheme THIS HAS BEEN CORRECTED 9/3/18 - vehicles over 3.5 tonnes that don’t meet Euro 4 emissions regulations are issued penalty notices of £1000 for entering London’s LEZ, not fines. Also 38,000 premature deaths is a min. global figure. In the UK it's 9,500.