Challenges for the urban supply chain: How can we improve respiratory health?

28th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP’s Laura Jacklin was delighted to speak at EMSOL’s latest webinar event ‘Respiratory Health Challenges for the Urban Supply Chain’ on Thursday 23rd July.

Joined by speakers from the Road Haulage Association and CRP partner Better Bankside BID, the event covered topics on how to restore cities’ supply chain operations to that of pre-Covid levels without the accompanying pollution from delivery vehicles.

A post-Covid outlook for the urban supply chain was also covered, as well as sustainable last mile delivery initiatives in practice, and how noise and air pollution can be mitigated in dense urban areas.  You can watch the webinar in full here!

CRP supports Lambeth’s new Climate Action website

28th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP is supporting the new Lambeth Climate Action website – a hub of ideas, solutions, actions, and case studies on tackling the climate crisis at a local level.

The website is a great opportunity for everyone in Lambeth to contribute to the evidence base and ideas that will be considered by the citizens’ assembly, and in the development of Lambeth’s borough-wide climate action plan. Watch our video, and take a look at other inspiring Lambeth projects here.

Creating Parklets for Community and Business Resilience

28th July 2020 / Posted by Ross Phillips

CRP’s Creating Parklets for Community and Business Resilience is our recently-launched guidance document, as part of the Healthy Streets Everyday programme, to assist partners, local authorities, land owners, and everyone in between, on steps needed to design and implement successful parklets.

A parklet is a temporary pavement extension that sits in a parking bay(s). Parklets are flexible and temporary spaces that can provide extra outdoor space, which has become more important from COVID-19. But this resource attempts to take these learnings and provide guidance for parklets well-beyond COVID-19.

Research has shown that parklets and green spaces can:

  • Improve revenue and footfall for local businesses,
  • Improve mental health and wellbeing
  • Provide places to stop and rest, with shade and shelter
  • Encourage active travel
  • Reduce the effects of pollution through healthy greening.
  • Improve accessibility and safety

Businesses and communities should be an integral part of the design process, so it is important to engage with local artists, schools, gardening groups, businesses and communities. A parklet that is reflective of its community is likely to see more people using it, easier maintenance, and more likely to be successful. Most importantly, designing a parklet should be fun, so get creative and think outside the box!

To find out more, please contact CRP HSE Project Manager Fiona Coull,
fionacoull@crossriverpartnership.org

School Streets for September

28th July 2020 / Posted by Fiona Coull

With the summer holidays now in full swing, there is a brilliant opportunity to start implementing School Streets in time for schools reopening in September. The Hackney School Streets Hotline provided by CRP’s Healthy Streets Everyday (HSE) project is a free telephone service aimed at helping HSE Partners and London Boroughs to design and implement successful School Streets.

The Hotline service, which has been extended to the 28th of September, is also now available to ALL London Boroughs and provides tailored one-to-one support as well as up-to-the-minute, site specific advice from The London Borough of Hackney – a HSE partner who has years of direct ‘on the ground’ experience in implementing School Streets. As the service continues to be well used, we encourage booking a 30 minute time slot in advance of the hotline’s weekly Monday operating hours to avoid disappointment.

As schools reopen, School Streets will play an important role in enabling social distancing at drop off and pick up times by creating more space outside of schools. The Hotline Service can help HSE Partners and other London Boroughs to quickly implement School Streets that facilitate social distancing, support travel to school by walking, cycling or scooting, and that are in line with TfL’s Streetspace programme. CRP and its partners are extremely grateful to the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund for making this Schools Streets Hotline Extension possible.

For further information about the service, including how to book a session, please contact CRP HSE Project Manager Fiona Coull, fionacoull@crossriverpartnership.org

Ditch Diesel: Your Electric Vehicle Options Explained

28th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

With the fast approaching 2021 ULEZ expansion and the proposed 2035 petrol and diesel car sales ban on the horizon, now is the time to start thinking electric.

We’re excited to be joined by the Environmental Defense Fund and Brixton BID for our next Live Share session on Thursday 30th July, 2pm. We will be discussing why moving to electric makes sense for businesses, featuring some of the pioneering initiatives that have been adopted around London in order to work towards an economic and environmentally sustainable future.

Home Holidays

14th July 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

The summer season is well and truly here! Many of us will be enjoying Home Holidays, or Staycations, this year. There is a silver lining to every cloud, and there is certainly the opportunity for domestic tourism to replace at least some of the usual London summer overseas visitors and their expenditure. London & Partners#BecauseImaLondoner campaign is something we can all get behind and support in helping promote London’s hidden gems to new and expanded audiences – just register online and start uploading your area’s attractions.

There will also be a Heritage Open Days festival from 11-20 September 2020. Again, register online and start promoting interesting buildings and sites for people to visit, including heritage walks and cycle rides.

For any of you lucky enough to be taking any holiday over the coming summer months, have a fantastic time, and we look forward to continuing working with you when you’re back!

The New Normal

14th July 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

As reported in The Guardian, High Street spending enjoyed a much-needed boost as lockdown eased on 4th July, but hairdressers benefited more than pubs and restaurants, according to an early snapshot of consumer behaviour. As economists wait for hard data on the strength of consumer spending for this latest easing of lockdown restrictions, analysis of 3 million UK customers’ spending habits by the digital bank Revolut suggested that high-street spending on Saturday 4th July was double that of the previous weekend, despite only England relaxing lockdown restrictions, and ran at 86% of an average pre-Covid Saturday.

CRP’s High Streets as Havens LiveShare session on 2nd July showed the 92 attendees how High Streets can re-open safely and sustainably. Please see CRP’s Toolkit for all sorts of advice, guidance and top tips on how to make High Streets good for business, good for our health, and good for air quality.

While spending in pubs was up 91% on the weekend before, Revolut said its data suggested sales were around half the levels it would expect on a normal Saturday. Diane Wehrle, a director of Springboard, said: “Despite what are positive signs for the hospitality industry on the first weekend of reopening, it is essential to recognise that footfall remains at around half of the 2019 level, with a decline of -57.7% across all destinations in England on Saturday 4th July. As the industry takes small steps in reopening post pandemic, we recognise there is still a long way to go before the industry returns to normality.”

#LondonIsOpen

14th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP is supporting the Mayor of London’s plans to help restart London’s economy in a COVID-safe way. As lockdown eases, our city faces the unprecedented challenge of recovering from the economic impacts of COVID-19, whilst staying safe. London is Open, but we must still all play our part to control the spread of COVID-19. Together we can keep London safe. We want to make sure London emerges from lockdown stronger than ever.

Continuing to work from home

14th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP’s accountable body, Westminster City Council, is supporting businesses exiting the lockdown by implementing measures such as footway widening and temporary road closures to make the West End as safe as possible for visitors. Businesses can also apply for fast-track temporary licences to extend their facilities into outdoor spaces for customers, and these measures support social distancing.

CRP’s partner Transport for London is continuing to work with London businesses to support a safe and sustainable restart and would be grateful if you could kindly spare around 5 minutes to complete this short survey  before it closes at 17:00 on 14th July. The findings from this research will inform the ways TfL can best support the return of office-based employees to restart and recover from the Coronavirus crisis by providing tailored travel advice to help you and your employees.

CRP are also continuing to deliver our programme of projects whilst working remotely in collaboration with our various funders and partners. Working from home is now feeling like the new ‘normal’ and we have all increased our skills on MS Teams which has been instrumental in making contacting and collaborating with partners and stakeholders much easier.

For further information please contact CRP Operations Manager Carol Quamina, carolquamina@crossriverpartnership.org

Keeping an ear on quiet deliveries

14th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

As we emerge from lockdown, many people have enjoyed the benefits of quiet streets and cleaner air. We need to protect this alongside supporting the economic recovery. One proven method to help improve air quality and ease traffic congestion is retiming of deliveries out of peak times. There are also benefits for freight operators and their customers.

In doing this, it’s vital to ensure that such deliveries do not cause another kind of pollution: noise. As part of our work co-ordinating the Central London Sub-Regional Transport Partnership, CRP have commissioned EMSOL to undertake monitoring of delivery points which will test technology that matches specific deliveries to any excessive noise detected and we aim to use this to identify the exact source. This will help freight operators, landowners and local authorities in understanding and ensuring best practice in quiet deliveries. Tied with commitments to best practice such as adopting TfL’s Quiet Deliveries guidance, this can help to provide confidence to residents that deliveries can take place without disturbance and any incidents can be investigated and managed effectively. We look forward to sharing our findings later this year.

For more information, please contact CRP Project Manager Tom Linton-Smith, tomlintonsmith@crossriverpartnership.org