Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Worse than traffic: How neighbouring councils are fixing grill smoke (and we aren't)
While we value Green Lanes' vibrant restaurant economy, the dense concentration of over 20 major grills is severely impacting local air quality.
I've heard that these grills are 'planning compliant', so we can assume that many operate under legacy planning consents, avoiding the modern filtration requirements (like Electrostatic Precipitators or Ozone systems) that new businesses face.
But Haringey is not alone - neighbouring boroughs have had the same problems. But instead of treating them as an unsolvable problem, neighbouring boroughs are already taking action:
Westminster City Council: Funding a pilot scheme to retrofit older commercial kitchens with advanced air purification to cut PM2.5 emissions.
Islington Council: Acknowledging that cooking emissions now exceed traffic as a primary PM2.5 source, they are enforcing stricter rules on chimney heights and mandatory filtration.
Hackney Council: Actively enforcing "Authorised Fuels" rules within their Smoke Control Areas to ensure businesses use DEFRA-compliant low-smoke charcoal instead of cheap, high-emission alternatives.
Haringey Council should follow suit and:
Establish Green Lanes as a "Special Policy Area" in the 2025–2030 Air Quality Action Plan.
Audit the 20+ grills immediately to enforce the use of DEFRA-authorised low-smoke fuels.
Launch a grant or low-interest loan scheme to help legacy businesses install proper filtration.
We shouldn't have to choose between a thriving high street and the right to breathe clean air in our homes. This should not be a party political issue. All parties should be supporting residents' right to live within mandatory pollution limits, and yes, it's possible to support the local restaurant economy and residents' health.
Tags for Forum Posts: air pollution, ladder air pollution
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rae Spungles
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Thanks, Hugh!
The timing is actually critical right now because the council is in the final stages of signing off the 2025–2030 Air Quality Action Plan.
Dropping a brief email to support filtration upgrades (as I'm about to do) would really help build the momentum.
You can copy and paste this list: Ibrahim.Ali@haringey.gov.uk, lucia.dasneves@haringey.gov.uk, zena.brabazon@haringey.gov.uk, pollution@haringey.gov.uk
And use this link to email Catherine West:
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25328/catherine_west/hornsey_and_...
Ibrahim Ali is the new lead for Climate Action following Mike Hakata’s resignation, so it’s vital he hears that we want the same filtration retrofits they're trialling in Westminster and Islington!
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest
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Alice B has been trying to raise awareness on this with pretty much weekly posts about data showing what the pollution levels are that are being monitored by a monitor at the bottom of Pemby.
What is interesting is that I have been talking to our local councilors for years about this, and I have got nowhere. I even went to the lengths of engaging with academics at Imperial who were willing to do a joint study and raise money from DEFRA to analyse the problem. I fought for 2 years to get officers to get off their arses and call Imperial to make something happen, guess what, nothing did! The academics moved on and did the study with Westminster and Tower Hamlets (Brick Lane) instead. The inertia felt deliberate!
I think Alice's data may now shine a light on the issue as it cannot be ignored if you have hard facts, as opposed to a bunch of moaning residents going on about it with anecdotal tales of suffering! It's interesting our local councilor Anna Abela has tried to pick some of this up recently, the cynics may say there is an election coming. The acid test will be how long any interest in the topic lasts beyond May, but I don't want to be too mean to her and Zena- they are very much led by what their officers tell them. The initial data she shared with me showed that pollution levels were in relevant WHO limits- but when you look closely the average daily limits supplied by officers show massive difference across a 24 hour time period (no smoke at 5am, lots at 7pm!). Alice's data downright contradicts what I had been initially shown in some cases.
I have been saying to Ana that beyond assessing mere compliance officers have to assess what other levers they can pull, and especially around identifying what is best available technology where the impact of 1 grill vs 20 grills has to be considered. What is interesting Rae is I have learnt more about what the council can do in your post than any interaction with officers or councilors! I wonder if they are just humouring me?
So- they say the camera never lies, here are two images from my brief trip to GL around 19:30 yesterday. I have taken so many images of smokey evenings I have almost given up, but last night was special- almost peas souper- ala the mid 50's smog.
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And, this is the image of a pm2.5 detector I borrowed off a neighbour some time back, in 2023. For reference, the WHO limit for pm2.5 I believe is 5 microgramms/m3 across an annual period, and 15 across any 24 hour period. This reading shows a spot reading of163.
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Hi Justin,
That background about the Imperial study is incredibly frustrating—it shows this has been a known issue for years, and the inertia has cost us real solutions.
I don't think the council officers are deliberately trying to trick us; I think the 'average' data they use simply smooths out the problematic peaks. Ticking a compliance box on a form masks the actual health risk.
Here's a scatter graph of the data points from Breathe London (a partnership between the Mayor of London and the Environmental Research Group (ERG) at Imperial College London). You can see from this that the peaks are way above safe limits, but the distribution is wide, so the average is not. It's the acute peaks that cause real health damage.
It's like trying to cross a river that is, on average, only three feet deep. The average sounds perfectly safe on paper, but you will still drown in the 10-foot trench in the middle. The clean air at 5 AM is mathematically erasing the 8 PM smog, but our lungs and eyes are still dealing with that 8 PM trench.I’ve just sent all my information to the Director of Public Health, Catherine West MP, Ibrahim Ali, etc. I pointed out that councils like Westminster and Islington are already tackling this exact issue with commercial filtration and strict planning enforcement, so Haringey has no excuse to put it in the 'too hard' basket. I'd urge anyone reading this to do the same.
Your 'pea-souper' photos are further visual evidence of those spikes; some more recent ones would be great. The summer usually sets off the smog brilliantly! Thanks for taking the cause up again.
The inaction may stem from a feeling that it isn't an issue until it's personal, and it's your underlying health condition, or old age, or your kid in the hospital with asthma. We also expect our council and broader elected representatives to look after our air and our health without being asked to. Are we expecting too much?
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