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COVID-19: Temporary changes to Square Mile streets

14th July 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

The City of London Corporation has begun delivery of its transport recovery plan, designed to ensure the safety of residents, workers and visitors as people return to the Square Mile. The scheme is primarily focused on providing the space needed to maintain social distancing on our streets and enabling safe walking, cycling and the managed use of public transport, similar to all other London boroughs. Temporary on-street measures include introducing:

  • more space for walking and cycling, including increased cycle parking
  • timed closures to motor vehicles on some streets (7am–7pm Monday to Friday), allowing limited access to premises for people with access needs, deliveries and servicing
  • closures of streets to through traffic or other changes in operation, e.g. switching to one-way or giving priority to buses
  • an advisory 15 miles per hour speed limit
  • signage to promote social distancing and encourage considerate behaviour

Details of the changes to individual streets are displayed in the windows of the Guildhall, on on-street notices and online. These changes are being installed on street in stages. They are adaptable to the changing circumstances and measures can be scaled up or reduced as required and in line with the latest Government guidance. The City of London Corporation are continuously reviewing and monitoring the changes to ensure the safety of all residents, workers and visitors as people return to the Square Mile in the coming months.

Upgrading the Clean Air Route Finder

14th July 2020 / Posted by Sefinat Otaru

We’re excited to announce the first phase of upgrades to our Clean Air Route Finder! Since lockdown, more Londoners than ever are walking and cycling to get around. CRP have been working with King’s College London to improve the Clean Air Route Finder to make it even more useful for active travel, while reducing your exposure to air pollution. Now live, the tool is layered to display:

  • Clean Air Walking Routes (Wellbeing Walks) showing alternative routes between transport hubs and key pedestrian destinations that we have identified with participating partners. These routes have air pollutant concentrations 30-60% lower than the usual, more heavily trafficked options.
  • Cycling Times to central London’s Rail Stations (Stations) showing users how far they can cycle from each station in 2- and 5-minute intervals
  • TfL’s Cycleways (Cycle Routes) showing a single network cycle (formerly known as Superhighways and Quietways) that links communities, businesses and destinations across the city
  • Walking Tube routes showing walking routes between select stations across central London.

We are continuing to refine our upgrades and will be releasing more useful features over the coming weeks. For more information, please contact CRP Project Manager Sefinat Otaru, sefinatotaru@crossriverpartnership.org

CRP Clean Air Villages Directory: new village areas

14th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

As part of Clean Air Villages 3, the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory has expanded, meaning all new villages now have their own page on the directory! These pages show which businesses deliver to your local area. Improve air quality in your area by using companies that offer ultra-low emission deliveries and services. Using suppliers from the directory allows businesses to actively reduce air pollution. To be included as a business on the Directory, please complete this short form!

CRP’s LiveShare sessions: What’s next?

14th July 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

CRP has broken into the world of webinars by creating a series of informative, interactive and innovative LiveShare sessions, bringing together industry experts in the world of sustainable travel, business and air quality aimed to help answer your questions as we emerge into a post-Covid world. These sessions will be held every other Thursday at 2pm.

CRP’s next LiveShare Session, Parks and Open Spaces: Keeping Our Air Clean in a Post-Covid Era, will be held on Thursday 16th July at 2pm. Sign up here! We will be joined by Parks for London and Global Urban Design to discuss the increasingly important role that parks and open green spaces play in keeping our air clean – outlining the range of benefits they have on our physical and mental health, how they have served our communities during lockdown, and how their continued positive use will evolve as we emerge into a post Covid-era. We will also be launching CRP’s new Healthy Streets Everyday Parklets Guidance and Tool Kit, showcasing how parklets have the potential to re-shape London’s streets post-Covid to benefit businesses, residents, and visitors.

Our LiveShare on 2nd July provided insight into some of the key challenges businesses have had to overcome in order to become Covid-compliant. We were joined by Camden Town Unlimited and London & Partners who provided viewers with inspiration in terms of working together to create High Streets as Havens, as part of an overall green recovery. Viewers were informed of London & Partners’ #BecauseImALondoner campaign helping bring business back to the High Streets.

If you are not able to make a session, don’t worry! All of our LiveShares are posted on our YouTube channel for you to view and share whenever you like. Remember to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to receive all our LiveShare updates.

We look forward to seeing you there!

HSE School Streets Hotline Extension

14th July 2020 / Posted by Fiona Coull

CRP’s Healthy Streets Everyday (HSE) project is pleased to announce that the School Streets Hotline Service provided by The London Borough of Hackney has been extended to Monday the 28th of September. The Hotline is also now available to ALL London Boroughs with sessions occurring every Monday over the coming weeks.

School Streets are very much on the agenda in terms of transitioning out of lockdown, and the hotline has seen increased traffic over the past few months. HSE is fully committed to helping partners in light of COVID-19, and CRP is pleased that the extension will enable HSE partners, and other London Boroughs, to continue utilising the service, helping to quickly implement School Streets 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.

The Hackney School Streets Hotline service provides users with tailored one-to-one support as well as up-to-the-minute, site specific advice from a HSE partner who has years of direct ‘on the ground’ experience in implementing School Streets. Additionally, the service is in alignment with advice provided by TfL and can be used in relation to both School Street programmes and individual School Streets.

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

A big welcome to CRP’s new Project Officer Stav Friedman!

30th June 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

What an exciting time to be joining the CRP Team! As London businesses and communities are getting to grips on life post-lockdown, now is the time to really push for practices that are healthier for both people and planet. I’m enthusiastic about the opportunities that CRP can provide communities through the Clean Air Villages 3 project and look forward to tackling the challenges of businesses engagement while remote working.

The team has been incredibly welcoming, and I’m looking forward to diving into partner meetings, brainstorming sessions and project ideation. If you’re keen to discuss how CRP can help your community or business district improve their air quality, contact CRP Project Officer
Stav Freidman: stavfriedman@crossriverpartnership.org

Flip the switch on Climate Change

30th June 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

The digital launch of London Climate Action week is 1st – 3rd July, which will convene London’s diverse sectors and experts to discuss the national and international response to COVID-19 climate policy and promote a #greenrecovery. Through business and government leadership, a series of events focusing on green investment, collaboration vs competition and solutions to adaptation will be held. A key area of focus is to decarbonise our transport sector. In 2018, only 0.5% of all licensed vehicles in the UK were ultra-low emissions vehicle. CRP’s projects collaborate across communities and businesses in London to reducing their transport related air pollution and encourage the uptake of low-emission alternatives.

The CRP Clean Air Villages Directory is expanding!

30th June 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

We are excited to announce that the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory is expanding across new village areas for Clean Air Villages 3! The Directory is a free platform, promoting businesses who deliver their products/services using zero or ultra-low emission methods. The distance from the vehicle dispatch point to the Clean Air ‘Village’ centre is highlighted to support local businesses, whilst also aiming to reduce congestion. To be eligible to join the Directory, a business must deliver in at least one of the pollution hotspots for the Clean Air Villages project and meet the eligibility criteria.

For further information please contact CRP Project Officer Rachael Aldridge: rachaelaldridge@crossriverpartnership.org

Clean Air Villages: June update

30th June 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

Clean Air Villages 3 (CAV3) is tailored to improve air quality whilst supporting businesses, communities and hospitals as we emerge from lockdown.

CAV3 is a Defra-funded air quality project working with businesses, communities and hospitals in pollution hotspots across London, to promote behaviour change around individual and collective action that will improve air quality. CRP has now met with all CAV3 partners to discuss a strategy for implementation of the project on a local level. Tailored action will be taking place within each ‘village’ area to promote behaviour change around improving air quality. Cross-borough activities are also taking place, and CRP is developing ideas on air quality monitoring, hosting LiveShare events and expanding the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory into the new ‘villages’.

For further information, please contact CAV Project Manager Kate Fenton: katefenton@crossriverpartnership.org

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CRP has also recently published a number of best practice case studies from CAV2, which highlight examples of small businesses who are contributing towards improving their local air quality, with some more detailed case studies/how-to-guides explaining, for example, how to go about setting up an electric van sharing scheme. The aim of the case studies is to inspire behaviour change that will lead to reduced congestion and pollution on our roads.

Join the movement of businesses tackling air pollution

30th June 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

The Business Clean Air Taskforce has announced the launch of the Business for Clean Air (B4CA) initiative. Business Clean Air Taskforce are a group of businesses convened by Global Action Plan and Defra, to help move towards cleaner air for all. Signatories include LeasePlan, Uber and Landsec. Clean air and building back better matters now more than ever. This initiative is aimed at large businesses – if you are interested, sign up here.

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