Clean Air Scheme to stay in south Fulham.

At the council’s recent Cabinet meeting (4 March), it was decided that the CAN be made permanent. Data compiled for Hammersmith and Fulham Council indicated overall traffic was down when comparing volumes in several months both before and during the trial. The average daily traffic for Broomhouse Lane in March 2022, for example, was 7,869 vehicles. This dropped to 3,352 in March 2023, a reduction of 57.4%. Not all locations saw reductions in each instance, with Wandsworth Bridge Road North recording an increase of 16.4% when comparing June 2022 with June 2023. Fewer vehicles may also have resulted in improved air quality, with the data reporting an average of 0.65 tonnes of NOx and 0.9 tonnes of CO2 less daily.

Certain groups, such as carers and Black Cabs, as well as residents, are exempt from the cameras. Businesses can also issue exemptions to customers, in a bid to mitigate the impacts on their trade. According to the report, the number of such exemptions rose by 236% between March 2023 and November the same year, up from 1,696 to 5,695.

A consultation run earlier this year by Opinium, commissioned by the council, found respondents were generally in-favour of schemes which cut out-of-borough traffic using streets as cut-throughs (52%). This was significantly more popular among those living within the trial area (65%) than residents from the rest of the borough (45%), the latter of which were more likely to either be strongly opposed or opposed (46%). For businesses, the majority both inside (59%) and outside (57%) the zone were more likely to be opposed.