Air Quality campaigns for everyone
Clean Air Day
Clean Air Day normally takes place on the third Thursday in June and is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign. It encourages everyone to take action to help reduce air pollution and usually involves hundreds of events around the country including many in our borough.
Clean Air Day - Thursday 16 June 2022
This year's theme was 'Air pollution dirties every organ in your body - take steps to improve your health this Clean Air Day'. See how air pollution impacts every organ in the body
(pdf, 423 KB).
What we did for Clean Air Day 2022
This year we held an event at the forecourt of Richmond station:
- Providing information about air pollution and active travel (walking, cycling and scooting) in the borough – come and ask your questions
- An eCargo taxi service for passengers from the station travelling locally - provided by Peddle My Wheels
- Dr Bike sessions – provided a free basic bicycle safety check for your bicycles
- Street performers entertaining with air pollution messages
We also:
- Launched a Clean Air Challenge for anyone living or working in the borough
- Provided schools with free resources to hold activities and promote active travel for the school run
- Provided two new school streets with entertainers to raise pupil’s awareness of Clean Air Day on their way to/from school
- Encouraged businesses to work with suppliers and to attend a webinar to help reduce their contributions to local air pollution
What you can do for Clean Air Day
Take our Clean Air Challenge:
- Make your deliveries greener by searching for Click and Collect and other options, such as choosing a green delivery slot or a hub
- Discover ways you might be able to reduce your impact on local air pollution with the air pollution calculator
We encourage residents and businesses to walk, cycle and scoot as much as possible throughout the week. You can:
- Take a walk in our parks and open spaces – get some ideas for exploring or doing exercise and activities in the borough
- Cycle to Kew Gardens on Clean Air Day (16 June only) and gain half price entry
- Trial or hire a bike or cargo bike with one of our bicycle and cargo bike schemes
- Use the Low pollution route finder for your active travel journeys
- Make the school commute more fun with active travel related activities
- Talk to your friends and family about air pollution – you can find lots more information on our air quality pages including a map of nitrogen dioxide monitoring across the borough
Previous Clean Air Day events
View previous Clean Air Day events.
Car Free Day
Car Free Day happens on 22 September each year and aims to reclaim streets away from vehicles for people to use, by championing traffic-free city centres and promoting active travel. The most popular activities are closing roads to produce Play Streets and School Streets.
What we did for Car Free Day 2021
Because COVID-19 restrictions were easing, but social distancing and face-masks were still recommended indoors, we focused our efforts on outside activities and those for existing 'bubbles' such as schools and businesses. The goals were to encourage people to use active travel (walking, cycling and scooting) whenever possible, and to support local businesses to make sustainable last-mile deliveries. This included:
- Offering residents a free Dr Bike safety check for their bicycle
- Show-casing cargo bikes for both residents and businesses, with the chance to trial one, ask questions and get information about grants for businesses that want to buy one
- Supporting schools to run 'Golden lock' activities with schools to encourage pupils to bike and scoot to school
- Encouraging active travel in the borough through a Twitter campaign, including a video which profiles several borough-wide schemes
- The on-going roll-out of on-street bicycle hangars in the borough
Previous Car Free Day events
View previous Car Free Day events.
Idling Action Campaign
The Council has taken action on engine idling in the borough and we ask drivers to switch off engines when their vehicle is parked for more than one minute to avoid creating unnecessary air pollution. Idling action events have been held around schools, at level crossings and in Richmond town centre.
We are part of a coordinated London wide scheme tackling idling, called Idling Action. Together with the Mayor of London’s team, we work with primary schools to educate children about air quality, to raise awareness about idling and promote active travel to school.
Further information
For the latest information on Council-led campaigns, view:
Updated: 22 June 2022
Stay up to date! Make sure you subscribe to our email updates.