London Environment Strategy consultation

We also must remember the green spaces that are not 'parks', such as the designated nature reserves and SSSIs. These need experts in biodiversity and conservation to maintain them and ensure they provide for our wildlife, much of which is becoming rarer due to over development. Speaking as someone that lives in the London Borough of Sutton and is privileged to have a number of nature reserves on my doorstep, I am worried that the local council (and national government) are not doing enough to protect this. Cuts are being made across the council and I am aware that this could mean a reduction, if not total loss, of the current Biodiversity team.

As someone that has work in a London borough, I have seen first hand the loss of two borough biodiversity teams and the problems this can create. A biodiversity expert is needed to comment on planning applications; without this expertise all sorts of so called 'mitigation' gets through and not checked upon.

I personally think this is the most important of all the issues that need to be addressed in London, and the UK. By looking at and prioritising biodiversity a lot of the other issues will start to right themselves.

Sounds great. How about:

* Greening every roof on commercial buildings, public sector controlled buildings and any building over six storeys. Or if we are really going for it, anywhere that doesn't have a PV or solar-thermal installation.
* Instigate localised human waster processing strategies to provide fertiliser for all these projects (and reduce pressure on the sewage system), there are some great TED talks around this.
* Planting native, naturalised and food bearing perennials shrubs/trees to maximise biodiversity benefit (not all plants help equally).
* Reduce mowing as a management strategy in parks and housing estates to increase biodiversity. E.g. leaving long grass in winter to provide habitat.
* Identifying unused ground held by central or local government bodies and provide training and support to create community food gardens (community, food, green spaces, triple win from unused ground with minimal investment). Ask for support from various London Transition movements.
* Favour fruit/nut trees and community market gardens over lawns in central or local government managed areas. Imagine (or calculate) the decrease in inbound road traffic if London produced 5% of its food locally. Checkout Ridgedale Permaculture on YouTube for an intensive, beyond organic, no-dig market gardens model suitable for our climate.

The proposed “National City Park”, is a self-funded non administrative umbrella organisation with no statutory or development control powers. I cannot see what the problem is that it will solve.

47% of London is already green space, although much of it in inaccessible by the public. It is not clear by what means the Mayor proposes to support this initiative or how he will go about increasing the amount of green space (green roofs do not count as they are invariably inaccessible by the public). Successive GLA administrations have failed to grasp the nettle of connecting green infrastructure at a strategic level across London. A few extra pockets parks without links to other green spaces and green corridors are not the answer.

The NPC is not a viable solution to the existing problems faced by green space in London, although conceivably it may answer a different question i.e. how do we get Londoners better engaged in the debate about green infrastructure and more involved in its management. I do not support a National City Park for London as it will add no new powers to protect green space, duplicate the work of existing organisations and require considerable new funding for parks that are already at breaking point.

The total net annual cost of managing the publicly accessible green space in London is £200M+. The fragmented ownership of the land results in a huge duplication of effort at several levels.

The proposed NPC will not solve any of the above issues; in my view it is mere window dressing which politicians are happy to support as it does not commit them to resolving the real issues faced by those of us who manage and promote parks and green spaces with ever decreasing resources.

Sadiq! we need these bio air purifiers each one is equivalent to 275 trees, and removes 240 tonnes of CO2 per year!!!!

- They are cheap! at only £70 per tree equivalent, £9million could plant 127,380 trees equivalent in London!!!

- They are small, and super space efficient

- They are low maintenance

http://interestingengineering.com/moss-covered-air-purifier-can-work-of…

https://greencitysolutions.de/en/

A great idea. Marvellous. I am already wearing my "One Garden Bridge or Two Million Trees" T-shirt. Now that the Bridge has, mercifully, sunk, let's get on with the Two Million Trees! And while I'm on the subject, Thanks Sadiq. (And don't listen to the Standard ever again.)

New developments seem to favour 'architect's trees' - little square ones in tubs... rather than plane trees...

That's disappointing in my opinion. The wilder the better.

Many towns in Germany have an area of 'wald', Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is a good example in London.

Can anyone name any other places like than in London?

I fully support a greener London like others on this post. However, it clearly seems that the London Mayor and his colleagues and others responsible for London exclude the outer London Borough when they refer to London. In Palmers Green there is a lack of Greenery despite the name of the area and no there are no Palm Trees either irrespective of the name of the area.

In Palmers Green there is the enormous North Circular and its busy, the Air and Noise Pollution is a tremendous concern, and yet there are no evergreen Trees and not seasonal planting with the exception of the Local Council spiny plants that die down in the Autumn and Winter as if Air and noise Pollution does not matter during those seasons, so the area is completely bare of Natures Green habitat. Along the North Circular are old and new properties, flats are build with front balconies and one wonders if it is for people of all ages to seat out and inhale the pollution?

If is for the tourists sake that greenery is concentrated far more on central London, well there is an oversight as many tourist chose to stay in outer London areas such as Palmers Green N13 because it is much more cheaper then a stay in central London.

Am I supposed to believe that those that are responsible for London really Love and Care for this city and its citizens. To really Love London is to embrace the whole City of London and not just Central London.

Similar to Bike Superhighways we need Green corridors in London: pedestrian, bike and zero emission (electric) cars only. These corridors would connect existing parks (Hyde, St James, etc) and allow to traverse London east-west and north-south in complete green space