Environment & Sustainability

The Mayor of London has set out his intention to address poor air quality in the capital.  He has announced plans to introduce new measures, such as an extra charge on the most polluting vehicles, and expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone beyond inner London, in order to improve the local environment and health of residents and visitors. Residents of all London boroughs are invited to participate in an online consultation about their views on the severity of the problem and proposed.......

A Day of Action is being coordinated by Thames21 and CleanupUK to clean up the footpath beside the New River. Residents are coming together at 5 locations to spruce up these well used and well loved paths beside this seventeenth century aqueduct. Volunteers are invited to join Thames21 and CleanupUK at one of the sites in Hackney, Haringey or Enfield. Meet at 10am at any of these locations: Turkey Street: between Bulls Cross and St Ignatius College, Enfield, EN1 contact:.......

The following advice has been issued by the British Lung Foundation. What can I do about air pollution? On most days and away from busy city streets, air pollution in the UK does not rise to levels at which we need to make major changes to our habits to avoid exposure. Nobody needs to worry about going outdoors. Children should not be kept from going to school or stopped from taking part in games. If you have a lung condition, you might want to avoid spending long periods of time in places.......

The following is reproduced from www.parliament.uk Urgent Government action is needed to stop up to 50,000 people a year dying early from air pollution-related illnesses, says the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, in its report on Air quality. Report: Air quality Report: Air quality (PDF 675KB) Inquiry: Air quality Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee The Committee's Air quality report presses for new Clean Air Zones in dozens of English towns and cities.......

The upcoming bank holiday sees the opening of a large wildlife reserve that includes two reservoirs hoding water that has travelled along the New River, through Palmers Green.  The Woodberry Wetlands project is run by the London Wildlife Trust and is making the area accessible to the public for the first time since the reservoirs were built in 1833. You can watch a clip about the Wetlands from BBC1. The wetlands will be open every day and there will be regular guided tours and various.......

The British Lung Foundation is asking members of the public to send emails to candidates for the Mayor of London and London Assembly Members requesting that they sign up to the Foundation's Manifesto for Better Lung Health in London. The Foundation's website has a pre-written email for people to send, with or without their own edits.  The pre-written text reads as follows: I’m writing to you as a candidate in the upcoming London elections to ask you to protect London's lungs........

Nine of the UK's leading environmental campaigns have come together to publish a manifesto outlining ways in which the next Mayor of London could tackle the capital's growing environmental problems. Greener London:  What the next Mayor can do to improve our capital has been produced by the  Campaign for Better Transport, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England,  Friends of the Earth, the Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the London Wildlife Trust, the National Trust, the Royal.......

The environmental group Thames 21 has issued a progress report on one of its north London projects - the Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge.   During 2015 work was continued in Grovelands Park and along the Houndsden Gutter. What is the Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge? The Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge is part of Thames 21's Love the Lea programme of work to improve the quality of the water in the River Lea, some of which is used to provide drinking water and some.......

The charity London Wildlife Trust is appealing to householders to reverse the trend towards paving over gardens, especially front gardens from which rainwater spills onto roads and into drains.  The following article is reproduced from the Trust's website. We are losing our gardens at an alarming rate. The allure of free off-street parking, a bigger bike shed or simply the idea of a low maintenance space in our busy modern lives has left our city’s gardens in crisis. In London,.......

This video is a couple of years old, but is worth revisiting in the context of letters that have recently appeared in the Enfield newspapers about the pros and cons of cycling rather than driving........