News Articles Archive - Page 88 of 152 - Cross River Partnership

CRP was extremely pleased to attend the Mayor of London’s Local Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) Annual Update Meeting alongside hundreds of other active organisations in the London Living Room on 5^th March 2019. Deputy Mayor of London for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, welcomed everyone to the proceedings, which were chaired by Angus Knowles-Cutler, Deputy Co-Chair of the LEAP. The LEAP’s funding programmes were presented, including the £22m of capital funding that will be available through Round 3 of the Good Growth Fund.

We were also reminded about the on-line resource www.growthhub.london for information and support on everything from Business Rates, to Brexit, to Corona Virus.

There was a chance for the audience to question members of the LEAP Board, facilitated by the GLA’s Debbie Jackson, including Simon Pitkeathley, who also Co-Chairs CRP’s Board alongside Councillor Wendy Hyde of the City of London Corporation.

Thank you for having us! It was inspiring to see the strategic context within which CRP’s environmental sustainability projects are making such a valuable input to inclusive economic growth.

It is a busy time of the year for the Clean Air Villages team, but we are making sure that all the villages are on track with their local solution to improving local air quality.

We have held over 10 workshops across the villages to get feedback from businesses on how they can get involved in a local solution which will lead to behaviour change around initiatives which will improve air quality. To-date we have met and engaged with over 80 businesses, on how they can change their behaviour with deliveries to benefit local air quality in the communities they work in.

As part of the project we have cargo bike schemes in all the boroughs that we are working in, showcasing that this vehicle mode can be used for a range of different businesses including food and beverage to pharmacies.

For those businesses who are looking to switch to an electric vehicle ahead of the ULEZ expansion in 2021, we are offering telematic dongles that will give a detailed report on the cost of switching over to electric. The first user for the dongles is the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham fleet who are looking at their future fleet strategy.

If you are a business in the villages we are working in and would like to be involved in any of the solutions, please contact us – laurajacklin@crossriverpartnership.org for more information.

CRP has taken up permanent residence on Floor 14 of the newly-refurbished Westminster City Hall, alongside other Westminster City Council Departments. As a voluntary association of all of its partner organisations, CRP has been honoured that Westminster City Council has played the lead accountable body role for the partnership over the entirety of its 25 years’ existence. The CRP team enjoys working seamlessly with its Westminster City Council colleagues, adding value to their delivery projects where appropriate and following all of the same financial, legal, emergency, IT and HR procedures, systems and policies.

And our partners love coming to meetings at Westminster City Hall! Thank you Westminster!

CRP is very pleased to have completed a piece of research for the South London Innovation Corridor, working with with the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth on diversifying the workforce of this growth sector for London. CRP delivered the work in partnership with Roseveare Projects Ltd. The Executive Summary of the report gives 28 SMART recommendations based on a review of 69 documents, plus 16 business-facing one-to-one interviews and 11 telephone interviews undertaken during November and December 2019. The report supports the projects set up by the complementary Mayor’s Digital Talent Programme, and welcomes the extra strands that have recently been added to this.

There are many lessons learnt that are directly transferable to other industry sectors characterised by high proportions of start-up, micro- and SME businesses, many of which struggle to engage fully with structured central government education, skills and training programmes.

For further information please contact: susannahwilks@crossriverpartnership.org

Councillor Rachael Robathan, Leader of Westminster City Council recently launched the City For All 2020/21 Vision & Strategy. \

The key priorities are:

Cleaner and Greener
Vibrant Communities
Smart City

CRP looks forward to working closely with its accountable body to help achieve its vision.

For further information please contact CRP’s Carol Quamina

Carina Mesquita joined CRP as a Business Engagement Officer in March 2020. She gives her account of her first month with the team below:

My first month at CRP has been very constructive and exciting!

I have had the opportunity to learn more about sustainability and the implementation of the Clean Air Villages 2 (CAV2) project in London.

The CRP team have been so supportive in teaching me the day-to-day activities in the office, and also accompanying me in the field to provide me with a better understanding of the projects.

Overall, I am very happy to be able to work towards the improvement of the city that I chose to live and work in.

For more information about the CAV2 project contact me on carinamesquita@crossriverpartnership.org

On Tuesday 3rd March, CRP attended the ATCM Place Management Conference, hosted at the Crystal, one of the world’s most sustainable buildings.

In 2019, the UN published a report warning we have less than 12 years to prevent irreversible damage from climate change. In the same year, the UK became the first member of the G7 to legislate for net zero emissions, committing the UK and Ireland to be carbon neutral by 2050. With the ambition to deliver ‘Green High Streets’ for the future, this ATCM event brought together representatives from local authorities and business improvement districts, across the UK and Ireland, to learn how urban areas can support a carbon neutral transition. With 80% of the UK population now living in urban areas, are towns and cities able to rise to meet this challenge, and how can opportunities be unlocked?

The Grantham Institute’s Neil Jennings highlighted the co-benefits of action on climate change, and how this can help make town and city centres nicer places to visit. Victoria Hills, CEO of the Royal Town Planning Institute, demonstrated how a holistic and innovative approach to planning can restore town centres as the ‘original’ sustainable destination. The conference provided a platform to showcase best practice both here in the UK and internationally. London Borough of Brent were joined by their partners on the Plastic Free Wembley campaign to celebrate their collaborative approach to tackling plastic waste at Wembley Stadium, where up to 8 million single-use drinks are consumed each year.

The underlying message was one of optimism for the high street. As public concern for the environment continues to grow, the rise of sustainability and a return to localism will allow towns and cities that respond proactively to thrive.

For more information, please feel free to get in touch with Abby McDougall.

The past month has been an exciting time for the Clean Air Villages team, with many of our village solutions in place and being utilised by local businesses.

The Tooting cargo-bike scheme is running smoothly, with a successful first three weeks of business deliveries. Unwined have been delivering between their Tooting and Waterloo stores, Love Art are starting consolidation at the ecofleet hub and Wandsworth Oasis are also using the bike between stores. Check out our Twitter to see the week-by-week use of the bike by different businesses! The ecofleet bike will be in the Deptford area on Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings, available for local drop-offs and pick-ups.

Businesses in Ladbroke Grove now have access to a free shared cargo-bike service for local deliveries. Family-run florist, the Flowered Corner, made great use of this on Valentine’s Day, with their beautiful bouquets being delivered across north-west London.

On 28th February, CRP will be showcasing the Parcels Not Pollution service at a lunchtime pop-up event in W12 Shopping Centre, Shepherds Bush. Local businesses can utilise this service to reduce congestion in the local area and will able to sign up to the service at the event.

In Brixton, the shared electric van (EV) is being used regularly, with positive feedback received from those who have used the van so far. We are hoping to have the same success with a new shared EV due to launch in Fulham… keep an eye out for more details on this!

For more information about the Clean Air Villages programme pleas email Project Manager, Kate Fenton.

This month, CRP hosted a successful meeting with whole buddy group to shape CRP’s new vision for 2020/21. Being able to draw on the knowledge of CRP members past and present made for an extremely valuable discussion.

The interactive activities saw the team split up in groups to brainstorm and discuss:

The roles CRP should be playing
The specialisms CRP will be focussing on
And the values CRP should prioritise and communicate in all it does

The groups fed back and gave insight into:
– The role we play in bringing people together
– Our specialisms in improving quality of life
– CRP leading the way and being proactive
– Re-establishing our values of championing collaboration, innovation, enterprise and resilience.

Moving forward, we will implement the feedback into the CRP annual report / business plan, which is due to be launched in March.

A huge THNAK YOU to all the CRP Buddies who gave up their time to help us plan our strategic vision for the upcoming years.

The first workshop of the year for Healthy Streets Everyday (HSE) partners was the Hackney School Street Workshop on 31st January 2020. This workshop, funded by HSE, informed borough officers of the key components of implementing a School Street in their borough, from selecting suitable schools, discussing methods of school selection and the considerations that should be made when implementing such a scheme.

The workshop proved extremely successful and included key speakers from leading sustainable travel organisation, Modeshift. Activity sessions focused on methods to encourage School Street adoption into local communities whilst providing an outline of the evaluation criteria required to monitor School Streets and track their success. HSE partners were then taken on a study tour to witness School Streets in action.

The London Borough of Hackney will offer an additional telephone service to partners for 3 months, commissioned by the HSE programme. This service will begin towards the end of the quarter and will provide HSE partners with additional support to help make their School Streets as successful as possible.

For more information on Healthy Streets Everyday, please contact HSE Project Manager (Acting) Tomos Joyce.

Archives: News Articles

LEAP Annual Update Meeting

CAV on track – cargo bikes, telematic dongles and feedback workshops

Its official!

Creative and Digital Industries research project

City of Westminster launches 2020/21 Vision and Strategy

New CRP team member

Delivering Green High Streets of the Future

Air Quality Solutions Launched as part of Clean Air Villages

CRP buddies meet to shape our vision for 2020/21

Hackney hosts School Streets workshop for HSE partners