Rosamund Kissi-Debrah: Woman whose daughter died from air pollution welcomes ULEZ expansion
A woman whose daughter died because of air pollution says the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone is vitally important because children with asthma are still dying from noxious fumes.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah told Sky News that “yes, (ULEZ) is painful, it’s costly”, but added: “Stunted lung growth will cost us on the NHS – that’s your taxes and my taxes.”
Between eight and 12 children with asthma continue to die in London every year, Ms Kissi-Debrah said, while across the four nations of the UK it is between 22 and 24.
During the first COVID lockdown, between late March 2020 and early July, it dropped to zero, she said.
“Five weeks after we reopened, a young boy died in London.”
Ms Kissi-Debrah added: “These are preventable deaths. This is a public health crisis.”
During an inquest in late 2020, a coroner ruled that the death of her daughter, Ella, could be attributed to air pollution.
Ella Kissi-Debrah
The nine-year-old lived just 25 metres from the South Circular Road in Lewisham, southeast London – one of the capital’s busiest roads.
Ms Kissi-Debrah said she waited up until midnight so she was awake when the ULEZ expansion came in.
From today, anyone who has a car that does not comply will have to pay a £12.50 daily fee in both outer and inner London.
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Critics of the scheme say it penalises the poorest most – those who cannot afford to upgrade their cars and who need them to get to work and to see elderly relatives, for example.
Ms Kissi-Debrah, who has been working on the scheme with London mayor Sadiq Khan, admitted some people had “slipped through the net, for example care workers, evening shift”.
She added: “Every new scheme that starts, there are always bumps in the road. We will have a conversation about that.”
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Transport secretary blasts ULEZ scheme
Read more:
Where expanded ULEZ will cover, why Sadiq Khan created it and why it is unpopular with some
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Asked what she would do if a future London mayor reversed the scheme, she told Sky News she would “have to go back to court”.
She continued: “It is very clear that Sadiq Khan has a legal responsibility on air quality. He was advised by every single expert in Ella’s inquest that this needs to go London-wide.”
Ms Kissi-Debrah said she has support from England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
“That’s what his annual report was on last year – the impact of air pollution on the health of the nation,” she said.
“And that’s what drives me forwards still.”
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
Read more:
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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