Sarah's story

Even with all the urban areas around here, there’s quite a lot of green space if you know where to look. I think that’s good. Cities need that. It’s the lungs of the city.

But I’ve noticed that my asthma is getting worse in recent years, especially when we’ve had the hot, hot weather and you can see the pollution hanging. I cycle around a lot and I get more breathless and have to take my puffer more.

I think it’s got to do with the traffic and increased construction round here. They’re doing a lot of building and you really notice when the rain comes down – it’s dirty rain from all the dust in the air.

We’re getting a bit like Beijing and Tokyo where because of air pollution you can’t go out.

I think air pollution is both a health and an environmental issue – a lot of air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels. I think it all interacts. But if you are affected, or members of your family are affected, it’s more of a health issue.

When cycling, I try to take the quieter back roads. You have to keep your wits about you because obviously you’re quite vulnerable on your bike. There’s still a lot of SUVs around – four-wheel drives in the middle of London!

The thing that really bugs me is people drive their kids to school when they could walk more. You see such a difference in the amount of traffic on the roads in the school holidays. It’s not a thing about distance, it’s just about convenience – children being driven to school when they could walk.

If there was a better public transport system, people would think about car ownership. Or if they’ve got two cars they’d say, ‘Oh, maybe we can cut down to one so it doesn’t impinge on people’s lives so much.’