The Green Party’s General Election candidate in Liverpool Riverside, Martin Dobson, has accused the Labour Party of double standards on their approach to dealing with poor air quality. Speaking in response to a report published today by the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee in which the Labour chair of the group, Joan Walley MP called for action to address the issue, Mr Dobson said:
“The Green Party raised this very issue in a motion to the City Council on 30th July in which we were seeking an urgent response to the unacceptable air quality in Liverpool. We made clear that the problem is a serious one, accounting for many respiratory illnesses and other health related problems such as heart disease and cancer. Indeed, it is estimated that 29,000 deaths a year occur in the UK as a result of polluted air and we want to see agreement across the political spectrum for measures which tackle this problem.
“Unfortunately, all of the Labour, Liberal and Liberal Democrat councillors present in the Council meeting voted against our motion so the result again is the status quo remains; the situation will only get worse while there is no firm action.”
Mr Dobson drew a parralel with the situation regarding locally based services;
“This difference between what Labour are saying nationally and doing locally can be seen in other policy issues too. Attempts by Labour politicians locally to protect services will inevitably fail if the Labour Party do not promise to restore funding to provide local public based services rather than promoting the austerity based budget we have seen under the current government”