London has a long history of being out at the front of global public health innovation.So can history provide clues to how the completion of the city's low-emissions jigsaw is likely to go?
Following that fetid event the government introduced the Clean Air Act. It established smoke-free areas throughout the city and restricted the burning of coal. It also led to a big improvement in air quality. With the creation of the London mayoralty in 2000, came a renewed focus on pollution policies in the capital. Arguably the congestion charge introduced by the then-mayor Ken Livingstone in February 2003 was in the same policy bracket.Yes, it was for improving congestion. But it was also about reducing pollution and improving the lives of Londoners. It was based on a scheme in Singapore but was also bigger and perhaps more radical.
In 2007 he expanded it to cover west London - known as the western extension - and there were many demonstrations against it.Nearly doubling the size of the congestion charging zone was unpopular in west London "These were all, at the time, controversial projects that had their opponents. But, of course, now people just take for granted that these were the right things to do."