The boring machines have arrived from Germany and are ready to start the UK’s most costly road – the Silvertown Tunnel – at a cost of £2.2 billion and rising. But opposition to the project is still mounting.

Following an East London health summit in June an urgent appeal has been delivered to London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling on him to put the building work on hold.

On 11 June doctors, academics, politicians – including the Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz – and scientists addressed an audience of 80 who met to discuss the detailed environmental and painful health impacts of the project.

They agreed that Sadiq Khan, even at this late stage, should be persuaded to use his powers to pause the work and review the project altogether.

Perhaps the most heart wrenching submission at the health summit came from a Barts respiratory doctor who spoke about chronic rates of asthma in Newham and how the only thing that she can do to address the problem is to speak out publicly.

All those present emphasised that new roads will lead to even more cars and pollution, Professor John Whitelegg likened traffic to gas – it always expands to fill the space available.

He said that studies are constantly confirming, almost to the point of being tedious, that road building causes death and ill health. The estimated cost to the NHS of each car on London’s road is around £8000.

Members of the National Education Union at the meeting said that teachers in the south of the Borough identify the asthma kids in each cohort, the only time the problem decreased was briefly during lockdown.

With an estimated 30 percent more cars coming into the Borough on completion of the tunnel, Newham’s health emergency will only worsen.

Nevertheless, the fossil fuel industry, the road and nuclear lobbies continue to talk openly about ‘zones of sacrifice’ – places where working class and ethnic minority communities live.

On 14 June a letter agreed at the summit was handed to Mayor Sadiq Khan stressing the health risks and emphasising how the project is totally incompatible with London’s air quality.

The Stop the Silvertown Tunnel health summit – with its key demand ‘our kids demand clear air’ – shows a continuing determination within the community to resist the deaths and ill health that bringing yet more traffic into our area will bring.

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Read our Youth Voices panel member’s story: People unaware of Tunnel pollution threat

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