News Articles Archive - Page 44 of 140 - Cross River Partnership

In September 2019, Westminster City Council (WCC) announced a Climate Emergency and set the ambition for the council to be carbon neutral by 2030, with the whole city to follow suit by 2040. The City of Westminster is unique in that 86% of its emissions come from the built environment, a much higher proportion compared to other areas across the country. Having an up to date, ambitious and robust planning policy is a critical next step to achieving net zero across the city.

Last week, WCC launched the consultation on the draft Environmental Supplementary Planning Document (ESPD) as part of their ambitious programme to deliver on climate emergency commitments. The ESPD provides further detail and guidance on the City Plan’s environment policies, supporting our aspirations to create a greener, cleaner and healthier city.

The ESPD will help ensure that WCC drive emissions reductions and wider environmental sustainability through the city’s built environment. WCC will be holding a series of consultation events over the coming weeks focusing on the topics covered in the charters of the ESPD. The consultation draft of the ESPD is available here and the consultation is open for six weeks, until 28th June 2021, with an opportunity to send responses to the consultation.

Send a response to the consultation – planningpolicy@westminster.gov.uk

Six of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists have presented their ideas for the next Fourth Plinth commission, for 2022 – 2024! You can now vote for your favourite, whether that be ‘The Jewellery Tree’, ‘Antelope’, ‘GOPNOGO’, ‘On Hunger and Farming in the Skies of the Past 1957 – 1966’, ‘Improntas (Imprint)’ or ‘Bumpamna for Traflagar Square’.

You can learn more about the history of the Fourth Plinth, revisit previous commissions and explore the new shortlist here.

Global Action Plan have recently published ‘The Case for Clean Air: How local authorities can lead the clean air revolution‘.

This report sets our the top five methods for local authorities to combat air pollution in a fast and fair way, namely:

Helping people and business to choose sustainable travel options
Accelerating the adoption of ultra-low emission vehicles
Focus on vulnerable groups
Planning and construction
Clean Air Zones

Electric Vehicle Fleet-Centred Local Energy System (EFLES) is an Innovate UK-funded project to optimise smart-charging for electric vehicle fleets. The project picks up from CRP’s past project Smart Electric Urban Logistics, which enabled UPS to recharge a fleet of electric vehicles without upgrading the power supply grid.

On 7th May, CRP met with project partners UPS, Moixa and UK Power Network Services and project funder Innovate UK for the fourth quarterly review meeting. It was encouraging to see the progress the partners had made over the past year, despite the challenges wrought by the pandemic!

CRP is developing communications for the project and looks forward to sharing some of the exciting results with you over the next few months.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Manager Sefinat Otaru.

The Mayor of London has launched a new campaign aimed at boosting London’s culture, hospitality and retail economies. The campaign and events programme backed by industry to kick-start London’s economy will bring together the capital’s world-leading venues to promote all London has to offer.

Part of Let’s Do London is to attract UK visitors to the capital, as the roadmap out of lockdown permits more domestic travel. Let’s Do London will also see a focus on many of the city’s outdoor spaces, which have been a saviour during lockdown!

CRP has now officially launched the Urban Logistics Hub Map, an online tool that showcases sites that could be potentially used for urban logistics.

The tool has been developed from the recent study commissioned by the Central London Sub Regional Transport Partnership, which investigated the requirements that a logistics operator would need for a micro hub and the availability of underutilised space across central London. CRP hopes that this tool will help to create a more sustainable environment for operators to be more efficient and for local communities to experience less congestion and better air quality in central London.

If you are an operator, CRP’s map has the potential to identify which sites are currently available, and we can put you in contact with a landowner looking for sustainable logistics space.

If you are a landowner with underutilised space, please get in touch!

For more information, please contact CRP Senior Project Officer Laura Jacklin or see CRP’s Lunchtime Launch 5.

This week’s focus is on CRP BID partner The Fitzrovia Partnership. We heard from Bee de Soto, Head of Marketing and Communications, about the success of FitzPark.

Fitzrovia is a small, one-mile-squared area in central London, known for its creativity and bohemian history, but more recognised by road names such as Tottenham Court Road and Charlotte Street. Currently the area is characterised by its mixed-use residential, flagship homeware stores, retail, hospitality, evening economy as well as being a hub for the built-environment, education (University College London) and healthcare (UCLHospital).

Approximately 70% of the area sits within conservation areas. With the constant evolving nature of Central London, regeneration schemes and projected increase in visitors following the opening of Crossrail and HS2, there is a major justification and opportunity to protect and enhance the green infrastructure.

The Fitzrovia Partnership is the area’s Business Improvement District. As well as being instrumental in making the area a prosperous place to work, live and visit, it plays a crucial part in influencing and implementing measures to improve environmental and social aspects, through greening. One project, FitzPark, is now a permanent feature in the area.

FitzPark transformed a delivery bay into a parklet containing seating and planting for public use. It was set up to promote health and wellbeing in the area, foster community interaction, improve the look and feel and increase bio-diversity and had outstanding results. As a result, it was moved from its trial location to a permanent location in the area. The additional result gained from this location was that it ‘designed-out’ an area known for fly-tipping. FitzPark was designed by Arup and funded by The Fitzrovia Partnership, with additional funding secured by Clean Air Better Business (CABB) from the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund.

Results of FitzPark:

The well-being questionnaire results were positive for users and business owners:
Users: 100% support; 41% increase in well-being
Business owners: 70% positive impact on business

Fitzrovia Facts

70% of Fitzrovia sits within conservation areas
Only 1% of the area is public open space (May 2021)
Traffic restrictions came into force on Tottenham Court (March 2021) with buses and cyclists only Mon-Sat 8am-7pm
The first new public park in Central London for 100 years will be opened in Summer 2021 (part of the West End Project)

Image: Copyright, Charlie Egan

CRP was honoured to be a supporting sponsor for the cross-sector report ‘Seeing clearly: A new vision for London’s lighting’ led by Centre for London. We can announce that the report has reached a wide audience since its launch in March 2021, being viewed over 1,200 times online and reaching over 70,000 people on social media. Coverage was also picked up by mainstream media and trade press, with articles in The Observer, The Lighting Journal, LEDs Magazine and Lux Review.

We are pleased that the Mayor of London has committed to collaborating with local authorities on their plans for lighting in his manifesto. CRP looks forward to continuing to support this important work to develop better lighting across the capital and generate improvements for all.

For more information please contact CRP Communications and Business Development Manager Joshua West.

The CRP team is full steam ahead on the Defra-funded Clean Air Villages 4 (CAV4) programme, where we are excited to build on the successes of the Clean Air Villages 3 programme and continue improving London’s air quality.

Now, two months in, the team have been collaborating with CAV4’s 26 partners, comprising of local authorities, BIDs, plus Port of London Authority and a Landowner, all with the collective aim of implementing dynamic freight solutions to reduce local air pollution.

The CAV4 programme will focus and deliver the following five Freight Solutions: Distribution, Consolidation, Mode, Policy and Technology, with a combination of interventions to support businesses, communities and hospitals across the 26 locations.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Anusha Rajamani.

Earlier this year, CRP commissioned Centre for London to undertake research into the future of London’s town centres, forming a Central London Sub-Regional Transport Partnership (CLSRTP) study. Town Centre Futures is now available to read and download:

Summary document
Town Centre Futures: Evidence and ideas for recovery (main report)

This report was commissioned to enable the CLSRTP group and CRP partners to plan on how to respond to the potential impact of the pandemic on London. As we come out of the pandemic, it is hoped that the thematic evidence reviews, case studies and recommendations will offer practical steps that partners can take to improve London’s town centres in 2021 and 2022.

Whilst the longer term impact of subsequent lockdowns is uncertain, there are now opportunities to rethink London’s high streets and respond to the city’s longstanding challenges, so we hope that you find these reports a useful and informative resource!

For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Rachael Aldridge.

Archives: News Articles

Draft Environment SPD now Open for Consultation

Fourth Plinth Commission: Vote Now

The Case for Clean Air

EFLES Project Update

Let’s Do London

CRP Launches New Urban Logistics Map!

CRP’s Spotlight On: The Fitzrovia Partnership

Lighting London reaches new audiences

Clean Air Villages 4: May Update

Town Centre Futures Final Report and Summary