'Green wall' project getting underway, as part of measures to improve air quality at St Mary's Primary

It is all systems go at St Mary's RC Primary School where months of background work getting the pollution-busting Chiswick Oasis project is coming to fruition.

The team are all set to start installing the green wall during the Easter break (from Monday the 15th of April). ANS Global is in charge of the installation whilst the whole design has been supervised by ARUP who have been instrumental in the choice of plants and helping with the implementation of it all.

The project includes the installation of a “living wall” and other landscaping features along the A4 boundary wall, using plants which have proven benefits in removing pollutants from the air and improving air quality. The final proposal is for the site to be made available for fairs, markets and community events, outside of school hours.

Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work has announced it is in community partnership with St Mary’s support the sustainability project.

They will be raising awareness across the Campus and local community as well as using its expertise in the areas of waste & recycling, engineering and landscaping.

Wiith the help of Enjoy Work, the Chiswick Oasis team will be be painting the entire ground floor (a huge dining room and kitchen) with a special paint provided for free by Airlite. This paint is going to improve the air inside these rooms by about 88%. The paint together with the air purifiers, will make a massive difference to the air children and staff breathe in the school and they expect to be looking at an improvement by more than 90%

Hounslow Council has tasked an independent company to monitoring the air inside and outside the school before and after the clean air measures. Hopefully this will provide enough data to find out which measures really work and they will be able to use the school as a model to then roll across other schools.

Chiswick Oasis have also signed a contract with Trees for Cities, a UK based charity which will be working towards the creation of a vegetable/edible garden with construction and implementation hoped to start from sometime in September.

Finally from next week they will be launching a No Car Friday initiative. Every Friday parents will be encouraged to leave their car at home and walk their child/children to school (or use public transports or even ride their bikes). Children will get their hand stamped and get an extra house point. At the same time the parent or carer accompany ing the child, will be given a “lottery number”. Every month a number will be picked and the lucky winner will be given a special prize offered by local businesses. Tesla for example has agreed to give one of their cars for free for a week-end. A local dentist at the Ravenscourt Dental Practice has donated 250 toothbrushes, 250 toothpastes, electric toothbrushes etc.

The team are still scouting for further support from any of our local businesses. So please do get in touch with chiswickoasis@gmail.com with donations ranging from vouchers, free ice-creams, free meals, massages, etc…

They hope to have a big launch at the end of June to showcase the whole clean air programme.

Picture caption: From left to right around the pupils of St Mary’s primary school: Andrea Carnevali, Head of the Group of parents who has been leading the creation of the Chiswick Oasis, Matt Coulson, CEO Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work, Charlotte Fougeres, PR & Community Manager Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work, Carly Gibbs, Head of Guest Experience, Glen Kitching, Operations Manager.

Charlotte Fougeres, PR & Community Manager Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work said, “Education is a key focus in our CSR strategy Enjoy-Work Tomorrow. We believe that whatever we do today will have an impact on tomorrow. We work closely with our local community to share our approach to caring for the environment. Chiswick Oasis is a great opportunity to get involved in a local project that will make a difference to the lives of younger generations.”

Andrea Carnevali, Head of the Group of parents who has been leading the creation of the Chiswick Oasis said: “This partnership is a really exciting development for our project, one that will improve the lives of hundreds of children and the whole community. I look forward to making our school a model for several others to follow.”

‘Chiswick Oasis' was launched in September by a group of parents from St. Mary's and William Hogarth primary schools, which are immediately adjacent to the proposed site of the project at the southern end of Duke Road. The schools' grounds run alongside the A4, a major six-lane road which carries up to 100,000 motor vehicles every day.

Air pollution levels surveys carried out around William Hogarth School and Cavendish Primary, as well as St Mary's found that all three were experiencing high levels of pollution, mainly due to the proximity of busy main roads. In the case of St Mary's approximately 47,300 vehicles per day travel on the core roads within a 200m radius of the school, which the report said was is within the upper quartile for traffic volumes amongst the 50 schools assessed as part of the programme.

April 4, 2019