News Articles Archive - Page 138 of 153

The urban market delivery and servicing project is underway for the CRP-convened Central London Sub Regional Transport Partnership, with phase one stakeholder engagement and data collection nearing completion.

This project is a first of its kind and is engaging with Lower Marsh (Lambeth), East Street (Southwark), and Chapel Market (Islington) traders to look at consolidating vehicle movements and enhancing local operating environments. A key output of this study will be a best practice tool kit which Cross River Partnership will share with all central London boroughs and partners.

CRP’s consultants PWLC have already identified potential opportunities to improve the market street space and operations which we look forward to sharing in 2017.

Cross River Partnership has submitted a response to the House of Commons Inquiry into urban congestion. In our response we acknowledge the growing impact of traffic congestion on London and recognise that the increasing demand for road space is causing congestion leading to unacceptable impacts on London’s productivity and Londoners’ health. Please see the full CRP response here.

CRP recognises that the effects of transport congestion are set to increase as London’s demand for goods and services rise alongside expected population growth. The impact of traffic congestion on poor air quality is of particular concern to CRP, its partners, and increasingly the general public. Many of our projects seek to address these issues.

Our response suggests that there is not one solution to solving the problem of traffic congestion, there may need to be some city-wide initiatives in addition to local projects to address specific issues.

Overall, helping individuals and businesses understand how their purchasing activities impact upon delivery journeys, and a modal shift to healthier forms of transport are key to realising long-term change.

We must ensure that London remains an attractive place to do business and that our urban environment enhances the quality of life and health of workers, residents and visitors alike!

For further information please contact CRP’s Transport Officer Jane Overington

Christmas is a busy time for recruitment and Recruit London is no exception! We’ve had screenings for all kinds of vacancies and employers, some temporary Christmas positions and some permanent roles; we’ve even had one role come through with the ‘golden’ family friendly hours of 10am – 2pm. Whatever contracts our candidates are moving into, we will be continuing to support them in the New Year to sustain employment or to find new roles once short term contracts have ended.

It’s been a busy and exciting year for Recruit London with new partnerships being formed and new team members joining. Since July 2016 Recruit London has supported 128 people into employment. Just over double that number has received employment support consisting of a bespoke assessment of job goals and needs and intensive sector based training. Many candidates have faced significant barriers to work, including long periods of unemployment, homelessness and health conditions and the Workplace Coordinators have worked with employers to up skill and prepare candidates for the roles and the return to work as well as negotiating a clearer pathway and access to those positions.

For more information please contact CRP Programme Manager Anna Elliott.

CRP is very pleased to sit on the Greater London Authority Markets Steering Group, and to support the work that it is doing researching and quantifying the multiple and growing contributions of markets to many aspects of London life.

CRP first recognised the potential of street and covered markets when it submitted its successful URBACT funding bid in October 2012, culminating in the Sustainable Urban Markets Action Plan for central London, led by Owain Jones (now working at CRP partner London Borough of Lambeth).

One of the 28 recommendations in this CRP report was the convening of a London Markets Board. CRP looks forward to continuing to work with the GLA as it recruits to and sets up this new addition to the London scene.

For further information please contact CRP’s Director Susannah Wilks.

We look forward to delivering lots of exciting projects with you throughout 2017!

Please note that CRP’s offices will be closed from noon on 23rd December 2016 and will re-open on Tuesday 3rd January 2017.

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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, last week announced that a team lead by the internationally acclaimed American light artist Leo Villareal and renowned British architects and urban planners, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, have won the Illuminated River International Design Competition.

The Illuminated River is a design commission on an unprecedented scale: a unified scheme conceived to light central London’s bridges along the River Thames.

The seven month search for a world class team to illuminate the Thames’ bridges in a free, permanent light installation saw submissions from 105 teams in 20 countries around the world. The six shortlisted concepts went on show in a public exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall in November, seen by over 10,000 people.

The winning team will now start to develop the design concepts in collaboration with stakeholders and partners along the river, and in consultation with the public. This work will take place in 2017.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: “We saw an incredible response to this fascinating competition, showing that London continues to inspire creatives from around the globe, and is open to all.”

Hannah Rothschild, Chair of the Illuminated River Foundation, said: “Leo Villareal’s proven ability to paint with light matched with Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ direct experience of building bridges over the Thames was an irresistible and inspirational combination.”

The Illuminated River Foundation is working with many stakeholders along the Thames supported by the Mayor of London and the City of London Corporation. Its growing list of key partners include Cross River Partnership, Historic England, London & Partners, Network Rail, Port of London Authority, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Southbank London, Tideway, Totally Thames, Thames Estuary Partnership, Transport for London and Westminster City Council.

The Illuminated River Foundation will raise the funds for the costs of the project from private and philanthropic sources rather than the public purse. The Foundation has already announced the first pledges totalling £10 million in November. This includes £5 million from the Arcadia Fund (Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing) and £5 million from the Rothschild Foundation.

Click here for more information.

Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Argrawal has unveiled a new tool for London start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The London Growth Hub offers London’s entrepreneurs free access to a comprehensive business support search tool and events calendar, an interactive guide to London’s incubators, workspaces and studios, and online forums to share best practice and interact with support providers.

Rajesh Agrawal says: “London is the best place to start and grow a business – and we are determined to help more and more entrepreneurs to succeed.”

The London Growth Hub is delivered by the London Enterprise Panel which is the local enterprise partnership (LEP) for London to develop the relationship between local and national business support.

Click here to visit the London Growth Hub website.

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.

Archives: News Articles

Urban Market Delivery and Servicing Plan project

House of Commons New Inquiry: Urban congestion

Recruit London Update

London’s Markets Steering Group

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mayor of London announces Illuminted River Competition Winner

London Growth Hub

Annual Rough Sleeping Count

Deliver London

Freight Business Research