The CRP team attended a chocolate making (and eating!) workshop as part of their away day earlier this month. The afternoon involved fun group activities and individual creative tasks, resulting in some delicious chocolate truffles, slabs, fudge, and cocktails. It was a great bonding session and made the team feel like real chocolatiers!
If you fancy trying your hand at chocolate making, visit https://www.mychocolate.co.uk/
We were delighted to be part of the Freight in the City Expo this year to highlight the many projects we have, and continue to work on, that focus on logistics and freight in London. The event showcased the future mobility of HGVs being electrified as well as last mile solutions including cargo bikes in inner city environments.
The event highlighted how the automotive sector is looking to adapt to the clean air agenda in cities and how advances in technology enables this change to be made at a shorter timescale. This was the chance for the CRP team to talk to logistics providers about the lessons learnt from the SEUL project and to make them aware of the Clean Air Villages project taking place in 13 areas in London.
As part of the event we wanted to know from the delegates what the sector personally felt about air pollution and how their business views the issue of air quality. Our wordcloud above gives a breakdown of some of some of the issues that were raised. Air pollution affects all in a community, so it was brilliant to hear all the companies looking to the future and wanting to be part of a solution.
On Friday 1st November, Cross River Partnership hosted a special webinar with Kristine Solgaard and Terje Elvsaas from the Olso Liveability Programme, as part of a best practise knowledge sharing event for present Healthy Streets Everyday (HSE) project partners.
The Olso Liveability Programme embarked on a campaign 2 years ago with physical and psychological reach. Accelerated by political will, Oslo city centre has become a more pleasant place to be in, improving people’s physical and mental health, as well as business footfall. This hasn’t always been the case and our Oslo partners described the anger and ferocity they still face in this process of change.
Improving city life through playful co-created design has seen Oslo citizens shaping vital public amenity from additional toilets and water fountains, to more and better seating. Whilst not totally car free, 760 car parking spaces have been removed in 1.3 km² of the city centre to make space for improved city life. Playgrounds have replaced car parks and citizens can now move freely through truly recreational areas with interesting streetscapes, punctuated with pop up events and community happenings.
It is clear Oslo are successfully challenging their citizens attachment to cars, as Kristine Solgaard said, ‘cars are perceived as symbols of freedom.’
The webinar learnings provided an interesting parallel for our partners and they were guided by our hosts to accelerate incremental improvements to more permanent healthier streets. 11 out of 16 HSE Local Authority partners have declared a Climate Emergency so we need to learn fast and grow strong. Watch this space!
You can listen to the webinar and view the presentation slides from the event on the HSE project page, downloads a links section.
For more information on the Healthy Streets Everyday programme please contact Kiran Rao, HSE Project Manager.
This month we launched the Clean Air Thames funding social media campaign!
The project, which has received £500,000 from the Mayor of London’s Air Quality Fund, aims to reduce polluting emissions on the Tidal Thames by retrofitting 11 inland commercial freight and passenger vessels with post-exhaust treatments, in turn reducing particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides by up to 90%.
Cross River Partnership has partnered with the Port of London Authority, Greater London Authority and City of London Corporation to run the project over the next 3 years.
We are encouraging operators of vessels on the Tidal Thames within Greater London to apply for the funding. Please visit our Clean Air Thames project page to view the participation guidelines, as well as funding application form.
Deadline for applications for Round 1 Funding is 10th December, 2019.
CRP’s Tomos Joyce met with Wandsworth Council and community group, Tooting Healthy Streets, at Tooting Market in early October to discuss the Healthy Streets Everyday programme.
Tooting Healthy Streets is made up of business owners, residents and parents who have come together to improve local community concerns that Tooting’s streets are polluted, traffic-dominated and unsafe for cycling and walking. The group, set up in under a year, have established a 4-point commitment plan to deliver active, safe, green and social streets and have already thought of creative ways to open up new and existing green spaces.
The meetings showed the creative solutions Local Authorities are finding to free up space for people and the opportunity that presents itself through the #HealthyStreetsEveryday programme to work together to effect positive and lasting change.
The meetings not only reaffirmed the value of community groups in the equation of strategic planning and people centred design, but it highlighted the serious concerns London’s residents have regarding their own health and wellbeing.
As a part of the Healthy Streets Everyday programme we aim to collect information from community groups to help make their visions of healthy streets a reality.
As part of Westminster City Council’s Apprenticeship Scheme, I am currently studying for a City & Guilds Level 3 Business Administrator standard qualification being delivered in partnership with Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES).
During the last 16 months that I have been working with the Cross River Partnership Team I have learnt and developed many new skills, such as prioritising my workload to meet deadlines, team working, stock control and effective communication skills. I have also learnt to competently use the Council’s finance system, IBC SAP to raise purchase orders and register expenditure commitments.
More recently I have attended an in-house public speaking and presentation skills course, ‘Presenting with Impact’, which will stand me in good stead when delivering my presentation for the apprenticeship End Point Assessment.
For further information please contact CRP’s Business Support Apprentice, Yasin Mahmood
Following on from our successful collaboration with UPS and UK Power Network Services as part of the Smart Electric Urban Logistics project at the UPS Camden depot, CRP have joined with partners on a ground-breaking new project proposal seeking funding from Innovate UK. This project aims to show how depot-based vehicle fleets can be managed smartly to offer benefits to the local electricity network, helping to solve the upcoming challenges of both the energy and transport sectors.
The project will trial and simulate the inclusion of fleet charging as part of a local energy system through the:
• Development of next-level smart charging, which maximises the use of existing electrical infrastructure while incorporating machine learning techniques to optimise the operation of all on-site connected energy assets simultaneously
• Testing of integration with public charge points, energy storage and solar PV generation under various use cases, including a public rapid charging hub
• Management of constraints on the local electricity network by participating in flexibility services
In 2018 there were over 5.1 million vans, trucks and buses on the roads in the UK with EVs accounting for less than 1% of those vehicles. If we are to meet the target of having a net zero emissions transport network by 2050, the scaling up of fleet electrification is necessary. This proposal will enable this by decreasing the costs and barriers of implementation while providing greater support to the local electricity system, supporting the acceleration of transport decarbonisation, and thereby improving local air quality in London.
If successful, the project will commence in 2020.
For more information contact Tom Linton-Smith.
Cross River Partnership held an extremely successful and productive Lighting Consultation Event on 25th September 2019, attended by 50 delegates from London’s transport and public authorities, as well as designers, architects, engineers, artists, and attractions.
The full PDF event presentation slides are here.
Huge thanks to University of Westminster, Speirs and Major, the Illuminated River Foundation and the Greater London Authority for giving such insightful presentations.
Also thank you to the City of London Corporation, Centre for London and Central for facilitating the three detailed discussion groups that took place, on: A shared vision for lighting; Who is responsible for lighting; and The benefits of lighting, including how they can be delivered.
Please see here for Key Recommendations from Cross River Partnership (CRP).
CRP anticipates that we will together refine our approach following the outcomes from Friday’s national Historic England Lighting Conference.
CRP looks forward to working collaboratively to formalise next steps on lighting for the overall benefit of London.
Please contact Susannah Wilks to find out more.
It has been a busy two months for the Clean Air Villages project including launching the supplier directory in all 13 villages! Here are a few things happening in the areas:
We started with attending the launch of the fancy new InStreatham BID cargo bike which will be for local businesses in the area to use for deliveries.
Then we headed to Wandsworth attended a Tooting Town Centre meeting, bringing together businesses and a local cargo bike supplier.
Whilst engaging in Covent Garden, we noticed that quite a few suppliers were coming from New Covent Garden, so we had an early morning site visit to see how this hub caters to London’s fruit and veg businesses!
Then over in Camden, we attended the Hatton Garden AGM to meet the local businesses and find out what is going on in the area. Down the road in Drummond Street we have been engaging with the businesses on what would work for their businesses.
In the next few weeks we have even more happening in the CAV villages!
There will be a workshop in Deptford at a local café! In Ladbroke Grove we are meeting with market traders and getting their views on how to improve air quality for the area. Whilst in Shepherds Bush, we have a hotel hosting a best practice workshop on deliveries. We will be visiting businesses on Pavilion road in Cadogan Estates to gage their interest in cargo bike deliveries.
CRP is currently working on a proposal to apply to the latest round of Defra’s Air Quality Grant. This collaborative grant application will bring together CRP partners, across London, from both the public and private sectors. The overall aims of the grant are to reduce congestion and pollution in Air Quality Focus Areas, through interventions and behaviour change schemes that will have a long-term impact.
CRP is currently delivering the Clean Air Villages 2 project which is funded by an existing Defra Air Quality Grant.
For further information, please contact CRP’s Kate Fenton.
