Life during lockdown

Identify a Travel/Tourism Ambassador!

Please invest in broadcasting Julian McDonnell's travelogues to help bring back the tourists into London.  He is an award-winning producer and star of his funny and witty travelogues of London.  (joolzguides.com)   He is a jaunty fellow who conducts narrated talks while wearing a bowler hat, and who delivers fun facts along-side historical curiosities.  He engages people along the way, all with great wit, style, humour and warmth. He would make a fantastic and experienced Travel Ambassador for the City of London!  

The final point about a "cleaner, greener" London is so important - I hope it does not get lost in the crush towards the old answers of prompting economic growth.

Finding ways to green the economy at local levels, building on existing initiatives like local cooperatives, community gardens and extending schemes for (for example) insulating homes etc. could provide jobs and hopefully also instill a sense of resilience and empowerment that I hope would help to reorientate London boroughs back towards the local and specific needs of residents, rather than chasing tourism and the city. Yes we need to find an answer to the economic problems this crisis has wrought, but it must be an answer that can help us also address community and climate as well as poverty, otherwise it will just be a sticking plaster.

If we want the UK to recover from Covid 19 people need to feel confident before going back to shops to kick-start the economy.  In such a densely populated country like the UK, face coverings in shops and any indoor crowded places must be MANDATORY unless we want to see this virus continue to spread.  Opinions from Govt officials like Michael Gove on BBC1 Sunday that face coverings should not be mandatory but should wear them in consideration to others is absolutely ludicrous! There are millions of people out there that will not listen to this and the very reason why it MUST BE MANDATORY.  Pushing the responsibility on to the British public shows very poor leadership. Furthermore, it appears as if Gove is trying to gain popularity from those who don't want to follow this mandate.  This is exactly why we have the worst death rate.  Nearly 45,000 people have died and still dying and there are still 800+ new cases every day.  Face coverings are a safety measure for all our sakes and either we ALL wear them or drop the whole idea and then let's sit back and watch what happens!

The Board’s aims are all desirable but they should be secondary.  Let’s keep in mind that we’re in two emergencies: there’s Covid 19, which is shortening thousands of lives here and potentially millions worldwide.  And there’s the bigger one, climate change, which threatens to damage our entire habitat with desertification and rising seas, bringing much more disruption and deaths ahead.

As we deal with Covid we should keep up the disciplined habits we’ve adopted and switch to the measures and behaviours that will reduce global warming.  We’ll face tough choices: new jobs to insulate old homes will be less glamorous (and generous) than plying air passengers with gins.

It’s good that London has a Climate Action Plan [ https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/climate-change/climate… ] and an Environment Strategy [https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/london-environment-str… ]  which includes chapters on mitigating climate change and adapting to it.   Do all the Recovery Board members know these, are they all on board? 

It’s making London zero-carbon that should be the Board’s prime aim in recovering from Covid.  Everything that we do for recovery should support the Plan and Strategy, and should be consciously organized to do so.  The Board should say so, and lead the way.

I sincerely hope the comments regarding public transport have been noted. If public transport is deemed to be not safe, people will not come back to the cultural life in London, stifling the possibility of any regeneration. Driving is not an option for many, and for the over 70s - the vulnerable group - cycling is not an option either, especially at night and in the winter months ahead.

My solution is to have elderly-and-vulnerable carriages set aside out of rush hour on the tubes, and elderly-and-vulnerable buses every so often. They will need to be monitored, of course. We hear this is difficult, but it must be possible. It is also essential for safety, to check overcrowding, mask-wearing etc.

Money appears to be found for everything but the arts, and the safety of our public transport. And without an audience being able to get to concerts and theatres safely, there will be no-one to cater for, anyway. 

I want to see a fast decent effort to provide council housing for all those who need it. People longest on the waiting lists need priority now as my family in private rent has now spent £180,000 on private rent. In the Borough I was born and lived my whole life I never have qualified for any council properties or even housing association properties! Thousands of properties are being built but for people from outside the Borough. We can never fully participate in life as just continually struggle from month to month to pay extortionate rent and bills in normal jobs. One child is homeschooled as has no school place in my Borough! We get absolutely no Council help, housing or schooling!

Inner London , west end and city are dead!

many remain scared to go on public transport and with congestion charge increase and extended hours including weekends ,will not use their cars to come into town. 
This is a disaster if we want to encourage people to rebuild economy by spending.

The mayor should reconsider the changes made to the congestion charge and reduce hours and exclude weekends at least in the short term

Crime, especially petty crime, is on the rise as the police and the justice system are unable to handle it due to staff shortages, budget constraints and red tape. This is making London an unsafe place for it's residents. As criminals become more brazen and confident knowing they will not be caught or prosecuted so the types crime will increase.

The police and justice system must be enhanced to stop criminals getting the upper hand in this city.

This nees to be addressed now and in to the future.

I'd like to see more proper cycle lanes and potholes filled in, as they're getting deadly, subsidised bikes and return of free travel on public transport for under 18s and over 60s. There's so many cars on the road again and the air pollution is picking up. It would be great to see London become a truly green city that makes getting around pleasant and simple for its residents. 

Evidence suggests that mask wearing is very effective in preventing spread of the virus, I think it should be mandatory to wear a mask outside of the home. In the long term, I think that we should look into making more (and better) cycles routes and potentially closing some areas off to cars completely. I think that we should try to mirror the cities of the Netherlands that are doing far more for the Climate Crisis than we are - for both the long term benefits and to tackle air pollution which is impacting life expectancy.

London has had better air quality thanks to covid19 . Why are petrol/diesel vehicles not being cut ? This is the 21st century when every improvement to human damage has to be made now not next century . 

Crime is a huge negative in London for people thinking of moving there . It has really got to be stamped on .

Why did the covid19 pandemic occur. We need to know the truth and exactly how it spread so we can prevent recurrence . This is vital .

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Muddled thinking

We vote for local government, which means if you let us down, we won't vote for you.

We want to use our cars safely without undue jams.  We do not want that achieved at undue cost or pollution.  This means the roads must be made more efficient, to speed traffic and reduce pollution.

Much is made of the degree of pollution a particular car causes per mile.  Again muddled thinking, we need to know how much pollution per day, (so a trip across London once a month in an older car should, correctly, count as less harmful than driving across London two or three times every day in a newer car).

Wasted journeys should be curtailed.  How many central London drivers feel they have to drive to the suburbs to fill up as central London garages are too expensive?  Deal with that and traffic is reduced, pollution is reduced.

If every Londoner, suburbs as well as central London residents were given two journeys per month free, with further free vouchers for those with health needs, then the congestion charge might be slightly more acceptable, but the first party that vows to cancel the congestion charge completely and re-engineer the roads to speed the traffic will romp home to a resounding victory!

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