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.
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
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
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:
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.
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:
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
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 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!
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
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
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.
