London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced plans to improve the quality of the capital’s air by banning construction plant that’s more than 10 years old.

 

New planning regulations in Greater London will require contractors to meet new strict standards which by 2020, unfortunately anything more than 10 years old won’t fit within the acceptable particulate and nitrogen oxides levels (or retrofitted accordingly).

 

On top of this ban, they’re also going to tightly regulate the amount of dust a construction and demolition project can put into the atmospheres having claimed this accounts for 15% of the pollutants in London air.

 

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “By replacing the oldest and most polluting bulldozers and machinery on building sites we can greatly reduce harmful emissions and boost our air quality.

 

“We’ve all walked past construction sites and seen thick clouds of dust generated from equipment that simply hasn’t been updated or replaced in decades.

 

“This new guidance will reduce NOx and is part of a series of strong measures including the Ultra Low Emission Zone from 2020 that will greatly reduce London’s air pollution from all emission sources.”

Known as The Supplementary Planning Guidance, these tough new regulations will come into effect in 2015 and will replace the existing Control of Dust and Emissions from Demolition and Construction Best Practice Guidance published jointly by London Council’s and the Mayor back in 2006.

 

There's still no official word on the Mayor's opinion about the hundreds of pieces of plant apparently burried under London's super-rich's basements.