'A Small Victory in Our Battle to Clean up Medway’s Air' - say local Lib Dems
Medway Liberal Democrats are pleasantly surprised to see that Medway council has been awarded funding to study how they can clean up its incredibility polluted air. We have been campaigning against air pollution for a long time and we recently launched our 'Clean Air For Medway' on the 17th June 2021. So we are glad that our campaigning has caused the Conservative administration to finally wake up to this issue, those sadly after allowing parts of Medway to have some of the worse air pollution in Kent.
Our recent campaign began with a Medway wide conversation with its residents. We believe that you can't solve the big issues facing our towns without understanding the problems the people face and how we can work with them to find a solution that works for everyone. Our survey showed that 69% rated Medway's air between poor and average, 42% know of someone who has been physically affected by air pollution, and 65% felt the council has a responsibility for reducing the air pollution. We have also applied continued pressure on Medway council by asking them tough questions at council meetings, and regularly pushing stories out to the press and on our social media to ensure people are aware of their lack of progress.
Now our pressure has worked, yet the council have only been scared into doing what seems to be the bare minimum. This funding is just for a feasible study on electrifying our taxis and private cars, as well as a small anti-idling campaign just in Rainham. But what about the rest of Medway? What about the extra homes being planned for Hoo where air quality is barely mentioned in the new infrastructure plans. What about our polluting and expensive public transport network. What about our over congested road network that is already at breaking point. What about converting the council's fleet of vehicles into zero-emission ones. This council continues to do things too little and too late.
Stuart Bourne, spokesperson for Medway Liberal Democrats said 'It's always nice to have a victory against this Tory administration, even if it's small. But what worries me is that it seems just a smoke screen, something to show people that they are doing something without actually doing anything constructive. Instead of wasting money on a feasibility studies and investigations, why can't get out there and fix our congested roads, plant more tree and make our public transport cheaper and emission free. We all know that's what is needed to be done and we certainly don't need a feasibility study to tell us that.'
Medway Liberal Democrats are happy to claim this as a victory in our battle to improve Medway's air, but we know the fight is far from complete. We will call on this conservative council to produce a comprehensive plan on how they intend to improve the air quality across Medway that addresses the wider questions on public transport and congestion. Until this council answers these questions we will not give up our campaign to protect our air for our children and grandchildren.
ENDS