| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Brentford Great West Quarter - Where does the air come from? | |
| Posted by: | Anthony Waller | |
| Date/Time: | 14/12/14 11:31:00 |
| The road was there first and the idea was to eliminate all residential dwellings from Chiswick Roundabout to Boston Manor Road and utilise the road for business and industry. Most of it already was. The logic was that even in 1964 the realisation was that pollution was not going to decrease ( it has considerably since then, even with an increase of vehicles and air traffic) and that it was not prudent to have residential dwellings along the two level roadways. The idea was that business use would mean generally encapsulated workplaces and employees only there for 8 hours a day as opposed to residents being exposed for 15 hours or more. Low rise business buildings were expected to create a corridor to contain the worst of the dirt ( as fuels were much dirtier then) At the same time Brentford High Street was to be widened to cope with local traffic. At some stage both got abandoned and the widened Brentford High street runs just from Watermans to Ealing Road and a paved over bit as far as Albany Parade car park. The rest has now been built on. The pragmatic logic is as valid now as it was then. The new buildings rely on technology and thus energy use to try to control the air. Costly in terms of energy and waste. Tall buildings actually emit more Co2 per M3 than most modern vehicles as do humans when exerting themselves. The ratios are quite surprising and can be found online. The reall problem is hi rise and mixed height dense buildings. Vortices are an issue as they force the air downwards which increases the pollutants at ground level and then disperses them over a wide radius but not up into the atmosphere. Thus ground dwellers - us humans and animals are going to get a higher dose of pollutants if living within a 1000m of hi rise dense developments. Not enough research has been done although what has been found is largely ignored as it would compromise profits. Much of it has been know for decades and has been a significant factor for the lack of high rise buildings outside the city apart from the sever social problems generated, now thought to have been exasparated by poor air and fungi spores found in tall poorly ventilated buildings The hemming in of low rise residential areas is also dubvious as this effectively plays tennis with air pressure and creates more small disruptions but confines the pollutants thus concentrating them. So the riverside should remain open space and very low rise to prevent this affecting a large swathe of Brentford. It is a travesty that so far reading through the borough plan and the latest stuff from LBH that none of this has even been considered, let alone discussed. As for the effects, agreed the local example is the BSI ( of all things!) building at Gunnersbury station. But take a trip over to Battersea/Vauxhall where the vortices have come from nowhere and feel how cold it can be but how the multi directional winds offer not shelter. Not nice. The long term health implications to those living beside the A4/M4 and as far as the river in Brentford could be dreadful. |