News Articles Archive - Page 126 of 140

On Thursday 24th November, the Rough Sleeping Team at Westminster City Council arranged for volunteers to take part in the Annual Rough Sleeping Count working in conjunction with The Connection (https://www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk/). CRP Apprentice Branavan tells us more about his experience volunteering.

Initially, a briefing highlighted areas to be covered by teams of volunteers and experienced Outreach workers, trained to deal with a plethora of scenarios. I was assigned to a mapped-out route that covered Leicester Square and Soho, which are usually areas that tend to have more rough sleeping activity. Shadowing two experienced members from The Connection I really saw how challenging it was at times to engage people. In some cases, people didn’t want to be engaged and just wanted to be left alone to sleep, but for others it was a language barrier that provided the obstacle.

The night however did end on a high-note, as we managed to get two people into temporary sleep shelter. When they found out that they would be spending a few nights in the warmth, they couldn’t control their excitement. One of the individuals burst out into song and his happiness was extremely infectious!

This really was an eye-opening experience for me within my Apprenticeship and very enlightening to learn more about the process in place to prevent future rough sleeping scenarios.

If you are concerned about anyone that is rough sleeping, you can contact the National Rough Sleeper Referral Service, more information on the website below:

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/rough-sleeping-helpline

To support our Oxford Street West Business Engagement Research and wider West End Partnership Freight Programme Management services CRP has recruited two extra project officers, Amandeep Kellay and David Richards. They will engage businesses in our work and encourage them to think differently about freight traffic and deliveries within their overall strategic plans.

Amandeep has worked in transport planning for the past five years with a focus on transport and active travel in the urban environment. He has worked with residents and businesses around London to build consensus and deliver air quality-positive projects and outcomes. David has five years’ experience in contaminated land and developing sustainable environmental management plans across residential development and commercial (including energy) projects.

Both David (drichards2@westminster.gov.uk) and Amandeep (akellay@westminster.gov.uk) are looking forward to working with CRP to contribute to the successful delivery of projects across the West End and central London.

Oxford Street is one of the most iconic shopping destinations in the world. However, it is also one of the most polluted streets, with a significant proportion of toxic NO2 emissions caused by delivery and servicing (freight) vehicles. CRP are working with Westminster City Council and New West End Company to monitor current levels of deliveries and servicing to businesses and in order to gain a better understanding of the issues facing Oxford Street, CRP team members took to the street in rain and shine to observe some of the deliveries taking place.

The results confirmed some of our suspicions insofar as many deliveries are occurring in the key rush hour period and vehicles are generally only delivering one parcel at a time – there is definitely room for improvement!

Building on our observational research, the CRP team began to approach businesses to better understand their individual practices. Although time consuming (and at times rather cold!), discussing delivery needs with individual businesses has proven to be the best way to get useful and reliable data. With a number of surveys now completed the CRP team are working with partners on how to use these findings to reduce freight in the area and improve air quality on Oxford Street.

CRP will be reporting findings back to Westminster City Council, New West End Company, Transport for London, West End Business Improvement Districts, businesses and residents via the West End Partnership cross-sector Freight Group, chaired by Steven Medway of New West End Company.

CRP’s Freight TAILS network of 10 European cities has turned its attention to the topic of urban freight transport and ‘integration’.

Over the next few months we will be exploring both how freight transport is integrated alongside other urban mobility considerations; and how urban freight transport is taken into account alongside broader discussions about our urban environment, economy and community.

Freight TAILS cities are busy talking to local stakeholders to understand their views on this theme of ‘integration’, and we will exchange this knowledge and experience, identify good practice and help resolve challenges at our next Freight TAILS meeting in Parma, Italy on 1-2 February 2017.

If you would like to feed in your thoughts on this topic, please contact CRP Project Manager, Charlotte Knell cknell1@westminster.gov.uk.

Freight TAILS is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, through the URBACT programme.

Mayor Sadiq Khan promised in his manifesto to plant more trees across London, working with businesses and the public sector.

London’s already a surprisingly green city. In fact, about 20% of the capital is covered by trees. However, some parts of London are short of greenery. Planting trees could make these areas look and feel more pleasant to people. Trees can also help protect London from climate change.

This winter 2016-17, Sadiq is offering up to £750,000 of funding to plant trees and woodlands in London. Boroughs, charities and other bodies can apply for tree planting grants for projects that will be completed by the end of March 2017. The minimum grant available is £10,000.

The Greater London Authority is looking for projects that will:

create new woodlands
plant trees in public spaces
plant groups of trees in parks and green areas

Applications are now open and close 10am, Monday 19 December. Follow the link below for full details on how to apply.

www.london.gov.uk/WHAT-WE-DO/environment/parks-green-spaces-and-biodiversity/trees-and-woodlands/tree-planting-grants

CRP has today launched www.clickcollect.london, a website to help online shoppers redirect their deliveries from central London workplaces.

With up to 40% of workplace deliveries being personal parcels, alternative ‘click & collect’ delivery services such as Amazon Lockers, CollectPlus, Doddle, HubBox and Parcelly can help reduce congestion and improve air quality in central London.

Our new website maps the location of collection points of five service providers, making it simple for users to identify their most convenient collection point. It also provides discounted deliveries and free trial memberships for the paid-for services.

The website has been developed through CRP’s Mayor of London-supported Clean Air Better Business (CABB) programme and is available to CABB partners to brand and promote as their own.

CRP is delighted to be the runner-up for a National Fleet Heroes ‘Air Quality Initiative’ Award.

Alongside Global Action Plan and ten BID and borough partners, CRP’s Clean Air Better Business programme has been recognised for the Clean Air Action Fortnight, which in March this year recruited and trained volunteers to encourage drivers to switch off their idling engines.

The impact of the intervention was independently measured and verified by air quality monitoring from Kings College London and showed that engaging drivers about idling can reduce air pollution peaks from between 20% and 30%.

The Mayor of London-supported campaign reached 3.8 million Londoners with the #noidling message and has since been up-scaled via the The Mayor’s Air Quality Fund Round 2 and delivered across 11 London boroughs.

Congratulations to all CRP partners who participated in the Clean Air Action Fortnight including: Better Bankside, Cheapside Initiative, The Fitzrovia Partnership, New West End Company, PaddingtonNow, Urban Partners, Victoria and WeAreWaterloo BIDs, and the London Boroughs of Southwark and Wandsworth.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, recently launched his ‘City for All Londoners’ strategy for consultation. Cross River Partnership is attending and pro-actively contributing to all of the subject-based consultation sessions.

The Mayor focuses on creating good growth, not growth for growth’s sake, for a London with good jobs; good homes; green growth (clean air; accessible green space; carbon neutral by 2050; circular economy); integration of land use, connectivity and transport, whilst maintaining London’s distinctive culture. He wants to ensure that everyone benefits from this growth, reducing inequality; reducing gender pay gap; promoting the London Living Wage; and ensuring better childcare and early education.

Mayor Sadiq Khan was the first London Mayor to have mentioned freight in his original manifesto, and this consideration continues.

Much of the focus of the Mayor’s City for All Londoners document aligns very closely with the objectives of Cross River Partnership and the work we are delivering with and on behalf of our partners. We look forward to working closely with the Mayor to deliver his plans. All of the Mayor’s strategies will be published for full consultation early next year.

For more information contact CRP’s Vicky Keeble vkeeble@westminster.gov.uk

CRP’s FREVUE project was presented at the Freight in the City Expo on 2 November 2016 at Alexandra Palace in London. This one-day event saw over 700 delegates attend and featured 53 exhibitors showcasing the latest vehicles, technology and equipment to enable urban deliveries to be made cleanly, safely, quietly and efficiently.

Tanja Dalle-Muenchmeyer, CRP’s FREVUE Coordinator, presented the project during the Expo’s seminar programme and highlighted its preliminary results: With very few exceptions, the 80 electric freight vehicles currently deployed in the project are well integrated into the daily operations of industry partners. Indeed, based on the positive experience under FREVUE, many operators have already decided to extend their fleet of electric vehicles. FREVUE data analysis is ongoing and results will be presented at the final event in London in June 2017.

The FREVUE (Freight Electric Vehicles in Urban Europe) project is an urban e-mobility project supported by the European Commission. For further information please contact CRP’s FREVUE Coordinator, Tanja Dalle-Muenchmeyer, on tdmuenchmeyer@westminster.co.uk; http://frevue.eu/

Cross River Partnership are thrilled to be supporting Heart of London Business Alliance in developing and implementing a Deliveries, Recycling & Waste Action for four years until 2020. CRP have been commissioned to work with Heart of London and its members to reduce the visibility of waste and delivery vehicles in the Business Improvement District area through initiatives including reducing waste volumes; consolidation of suppliers; redirecting staff personal deliveries and retiming of deliveries. This reduction of waste on the streets and vans will improve public realm in central London destinations around Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. CRP are recruiting a dedicated Heart of London Deliveries & Waste Officer to engage directly with businesses in the area about the project. We will be launching our plan to Heart of London members at an exciting event in February 2017.

For further information contact CRP’s Deliver London Programme Manager Vicky Keeble vkeeble@westminster.gov.uk

Archives: News Articles

Annual Rough Sleeping Count

Deliver London

Freight Business Research

Freight TAILS: Focus on Integration

Tree Planting Grants 2016-17

Click. Collect. Clean Air.

Fleet Heroes

City for All Londoners

FREVUE at Freight in the City

Heart of London Business Alliance and CRP