Boris Johnson backs DPFs on construction plant

London Mayor Boris Johnson shows no sign of repealing the need to retrofit diesel particulate filters (DPFs) to construction plant working in the capital.

The requirement for machines over 35kW to have a DPF retrofitted comes in the London Best Practice Guidance (BPG), which was drafted by predecessor Ken Livingstone and applies to larger sites in London.

While those in the construction, demolition and plant industries see many of the BPG's requirements as reasonable, they had hoped the new Mayor would remove the need to retrofit a DPF.

Having sent CJ's article Does best practice make perfect? to Mayor Johnson, a written response from his press office said: "The BPG was developed jointly with London Councils, following requests from boroughs, to provide much-needed consistency of approach on reducing emissions from demolition and construction activities.

"The Guidance provides clarity on best practice and outlines technologies that are available, saving developers time and cost. Many developers are already coming forward with planning applications voluntarily incorporating these approaches," it continued.

The reply goes on to say the Olympic Delivery Authority has committed to implement the Guidance's recommendations on Olympic sites and the estimated £9m in the article is "grossly overestimated and would only apply if the most expensive technologies were used and if every development across London adhered to the Guidance".

At a recent Construction Plant-hire Association crane interest group meeting, only one hire company indicated that it would consider retrofitting machines with DPFs.

While there are four companies and six filters registered for BPG fitting by the Energy Sayings Trust, currently it has not had the necessary notification of any installations.