An air quality report, which was allegedly ‘suppressed’ under Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London shows that nearly 20 schools’ in Wandsworth are in areas which either exceed or are dangerously close to the annual NO2 limit.

Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, has released a report giving details of air quality around schools in London, which he claims was not released when Mr Johnson was in charge at City Hall.

The details of 17 primary schools in Wandsworth also reveal a link between deprivation and higher levels, with many of the schools having more than 50 per cent of children on free school meals.

Wandsworth Times:

One of the worst hit is St Mary’s, where the annual NO2 limit in the area was 48.4mg, with a prediction of 41.28mg for 2020.

This is still over the annual legal limit of 40mg.

High View, St Anne’s, Chesterton, and West Hill are all in areas that breached the limit, and all but West Hill have more than 50 per cent of its pupils on free schools meals.

Mr Khan said the report had been found with statistics from 2013, completed by outside consultants, in his first week in the job and he had published it within days.

He said: “Half a million under-19s in London are breathing in air in breach of NO2 levels. Separate from that, we know the air in London is responsible for 10,000 deaths last year and in parts of London children have under-developed lungs.

“I will publish the most far reaching plans to tackle air quality in a generation.

“I do not want to wait for the next great smog.”

Mr Khan said the issue of air quality was particularly close to him, as he has just been diagnosed with asthma at 45-years-old.

Simon Birkett, founder and director of Clean Air in London, said: “This is the latest example of Boris covering-up or fibbing about London’s air pollution problems.

“We have had glue spraying to reduce pollution in front of monitors, misleading newspaper advertisements and now this. Sadiq Khan has done more for clean air in two weeks than Boris did in eight years.

“London needs a Clean Air Revolution on the 60th anniversary of the first Clean Air Act and the good news is that it looks like we’re going to get it.”

Mr Khan said no idea should be off the table when it came to tackling the issue, and that he would consider adopting banning HGVs and using clean buses only in the worst hit areas.

He would also consider expanding the Wandsworth Council idea of banning lorries between certain times as has happened in Putney High Street.

Caroline Russell, Green Party AM, said: “Children are at risk of reduced lung capacity and are particularly vulnerable to developing asthma from excessive vehicular pollution.

“It is staggering that Boris Johnson sat on this report for two and a half years.

“If this was a deliberate cover up, as suggested, the former Mayor of London not only failed to fulfil his public health responsibilities but is answerable for negligence.

“Having found this report, the new Mayor Sadiq Khan should also take note that a number of the schools are in outer London, beyond his proposed Ultra Low Emission Zone.

“It’s essential that all outer London boroughs should also have the ability to opt in the Ultra Low Emission Zone right from the beginning.”