The Mayor of London and London Assembly elections are taking place on Thursday 6th May. The deadline to register to vote for these elections is Monday 19th April.If you would prefer to register for a postal vote you can apply now and the deadline is 5pm on Tuesday 20th April.
Register here.
This week we are featuring CRP Project Officer Rachael Aldridge.
As part of my role at CRP, I deliver on communications for the Clean Air Villages programme, as well as CRP-wide strategic communications. From producing our fortnightly newsletter, organising CRP’s Lunchtime Launches, promoting shared cargo bike schemes across villages, contacting businesses about the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory … I am familiar with a lot of the work that CRP does and continues to deliver! I love bringing people together through our communications and events and seeing the change that CRP facilitates across London. My role is varied, exciting and challenging – and has been all of these things especially throughout the pandemic!
Are you aware that April is Stress Awareness Month?
It has been extremely difficult for everyone over the past year, having to deal with the events of the pandemic. It is important that we take time out to look after mental health and wellbeing so that we can look after families and loved ones.
This year the Stress Management Society is hosting a 30-day challenge to regain Connection, Certainty and Control by encouraging people to pick one action each for their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing to carry out every day. It takes 30 days to turn actions into habits and make a positive behaviour change.
What commitment will you make? More details and tips can be found here.
CRP’s vision is to work with its partners to address the grand challenges of our time and shape the London of tomorrow, creating a more sustainable city for the capital’s residents, businesses and visitors.
Thursday 22nd April 2021 sees the return of Earth Day, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behaviour for a more sustainable world. This year marks the 51st Earth Day and will be celebrated with plenty of digital events, including CRP’s Lunchtime Launch!
CRP’s activities are focused on changing human behaviour to create a more sustainable world for our 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.
Clean Air Villages 3 encouraged businesses, communities and charities to switch to more air-quality friendly delivery methods such as cargo bikes and electric vehicles. The Central London Sub-Regional Transport Partnership is supporting Local Authorities to realise the potential of and adopt micro-consolidation hubs and centres.
CRP’s Healthy Streets Everyday
programme is supporting local authorities and BIDs to implement local change, such as school streets, urban greening, parklets and walking and cycling programmes. These all have a profound impact on air quality and the sustainability of the Earth.
For further information, please contact CRP Project Officer Ross Phillips.
Earlier this year, CRP’s Air Quality Ambassador Julie Tucker helped us launch the Clean Air Community group on LinkedIn!
The group was initially welcome to professionals and residents of City of London who are interested in #airquality issues and all the wonderful research, initiatives and projects that are taking place to improve it.
We’re proud to be expanding the group to Greater London. So if you’re working in air quality, sustainable transport, monitoring, behaviour change, active travel or just interested in the topic and want to know/do more, come join our newly named London Clean Air Community.
Help us grow this network and community of individuals and businesses working towards less #airpollution and a cleaner, healthier London for all.
CRP remains at forefront of delivering positive change for London’s residents, businesses and visitors. We produce many sector leading online publications including case studies, toolkits, guidance documents, reports and interactive, online tools. We are committed to ensuring that all these resources are accessible to those who wish to use them.
At least 1 in 5 people in the UK have a long-term illness, impairment or disability with many more having a temporary disability. Making resources
accessible means making sure they can be used by as many people as possible. This includes those with impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments, learning disabilities, deafness or impaired hearing.
CRP is committed to embedding accessibility into the design and formatting of all its publications and will continue to update and improve our standards of practise across all our innovative projects and their outputs.
For more information about our practices and how we are creating accessible design as standard, please contact CRP Communications & Business Development Manager Joshua West.
Image: A School Street in action at the Van Gogh Primary School, London Borough of Lambeth.
With schools back open after lockdown, it’s great to see the return of Sustrans Big Pedal – the UK’s biggest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting competition!
Running from 19th – 30th April, the Big Pedal is open to all UK primary and secondary schools, encouraging them to compete to see who can get the highest percentage of their pupils, staff and parents cycling, walking, wheeling or scooting to school. There are also daily prizes, with rewards such as equipment and accessories up for grabs, for schools that achieve over 15% of their community participating in active travel.
CRP’s Healthy Streets Everyday programme has helped partners and London Boroughs to design and implement School Streets through its Hackney School Streets Hotline, a free telephone service that was available between May and September 2020, providing tailored support for the implementation of school streets. The programme has also helped fund School Street initiatives in London Boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth.
Active travel to school has become increasingly important, especially as we ease out of the pandemic. Not only does being outside reduce the risk of transmission but active travel also improves health and reduces pollution, as poor physical health and pollution are both factors that may be linked to COVID-19 severity.
School Streets play an important role in enabling active and safe travel to school. By creating more space outside of schools, school streets make it safer for children and parents to walk, cycle, wheel and scoot to school, whilst also ensuring more space for social distancing at drop off and pick up times.
For further information, please contact CRP Project Manager Fiona Coull.
This week’s Spotlight On is on CRP partner Hatton Garden BID. The BID’s aim is to support business growth and see Hatton Garden grow as a world-renowned business and visitor destination.
Recently, businesses have voted overwhelmingly in favour of renewing the Hatton Garden Business Improvement District (BID) for a second five year term.
The BID team, led by specialist regeneration consultancy Primera Corporation, will work with Camden Council and other partners to deliver the business plan that was published in advance of the ballot being held.
Hatton Garden is London’s historic jewellery district, home to the largest cluster of jewellery related businesses in the UK, and now also home to a growing number of businesses from other sectors wanting to locate in a bustling, thriving destination with a strong sense of identity. The BID will now be able to continue its work to enhance the area with a range of programmes – from street cleaning, ambassadors and greening, to destination marketing and public realm improvements. Approximately £2 million will be invested into the area over the next five years.
The BID’s second term comes at a pivotal point for London. With the economy beginning to open up once again, and businesses eager to stabilise and grow, the BID stands ready to support the Hatton Garden business community. The much delayed Elizabeth Line now looks finally close to opening, bringing an additional one and half million people to within 45 minutes of Hatton Garden.
There is growing acknowledgement that all areas in the capital are raising their game, no matter how well known or iconic. The drive to compete for the best talent, a rightful share of the tourist market and entice domestic visitors has never been more important.
Gary Williams, Chair of the Hatton Garden BID, said:
“Hatton Garden is already one of London’s great districts, with a diverse business mix, wonderful character, unique venues and ideally located, but it has the potential to be even better. We live in uncertain times, but through the careful curation of the area over the last five years and in our second term, we are on a mission to ensure Hatton Garden benefits from the renaissance of London in the coming months and years.”
The inception meeting for the Defra-funded Clean Air Villages 4 programme is due to take place this week.
All 25 partners will come together to meet one another and launch the programme. The programme will deliver five Freight Solutions, on: Distribution, Consolidation, Mode, Policy & Technology, with the aim of reducing congestion and pollution.
For more information about CAV4 project delivery, please contact CRP Project Manager Kate Fenton.
Further support for businesses has recently been announced, as restrictions lift in a new phase of the pandemic.
The new Restart Grant is a one-off cash grant, available now for businesses with premises registered for business rates. Designed for businesses trying to reopen and get back on their feet after the latest lockdown, the grant is in two strands:
Other financial support available for businesses includes the Recovery Loan Scheme, which supports access to finance for UK businesses as they grow and recover from the disruption of the pandemic. Up to £10 million is available per business. The actual amount offered and the terms are at the discretion of participating lenders. The scheme will run until 31th December 2021.
The Help to Grow programme is a government initiative designed to help small and medium businesses to learn new skills, reach new customers and boost profits. To be eligible, businesses need to have been operating for more than one year and have between five to 249 employees.
