Ladder Day Saints!

On a brisk but bright morning, James and I met Westminster councillor Ray Lancashire (well... James met Ray… then I turned up an achingly fashionable 20 minutes late) and, armed with cable ties, clasps, acrylic tubes, map, checkpoint spreadsheet, tape measure and our trusty stepladder, we set off around the roads of Queen’s Park to affix these ever-so-clever air pollution measuring devices eight feet up a selection of local lampposts.

When it comes to minimising air pollution, Ray’s quite the expert – he chairs the council’s Air Quality Working Group, and explained how these devices enable the council to gather seasonal nitrogen dioxide measurements. They use this data to, for example, apply for grants to plant yew trees (whose leaves absorb pollution from traffic, tyre rubber, even fireworks), as well as planning suitable parking/traffic restrictions, eg around schools, in order to try to keep local pollution levels as low as possible.

The three of us got into a slick routine of map checking, stepladder shimmying, cable’n’clasp combining, acrylic affixing and spreadsheet scribbling, and in no time (well, two and a half hours, but it flew by!) we’d covered Queen’s Park in pollution contraptions. As lunchtime loomed, James and I said our goodbyes and left Ray to set up the remaining two devices indoors.

They’ll need taking down in the new year to ensure the data gathering can continue apace, so Good Gym will no doubt be at the ready for another atmospheric Queen’s Park monitoring mission in January!