Environmental policy

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Copenhagen has many pedestrianised streets	Covent Garden. Where we do it, it is a big success
If Ken gets in, this area outside the National Gallery will be pedestrianised, for one. It was not until 2002 that the Mayor got around to doing this.	The Haymarket will have just one bus lane on one side. The rest will be pedestrianised
We can surely find a better way to do Piccadilly Circus! This is a Sunday...	1. Less traffic = more air Apart from the transport policy, widespread pedestrianisation will be introduced in the city centres & encouraged in the outer town centres. Schemes such as those proposed by Sir Richard Rogers & Sir Norman Foster will be dusted down & implemented.

2. Brown fields will be green fields or housing.

'Brown fields' are not just sites of industrial dereliction. They include any unused site or building. Pressure will be put on National Heritage to unlist bad, useless buildings or permit their conversion to Housing.

If a site is not to be developed for three months or more, a duty will be placed on the developers to clear the site, turf it & open it to the public. Ken will look into whether prisoner labour can be used to clear these sites, as the cost of doing so discourages developers. Prisoners could perhaps be offered a one hour discount to their sentences for every eight-hour day of work done on a brown field.

3. Jobs are an environmental issue

Three hundred years ago, most working people were agricultural labourers. One hundred years ago, most were industrial. Now that is fading fast & we don't yet know what the wave of the future will be, although it seems to be intellect-based. Whatever jobs are created (& the Mayor has no budget to create jobs) will be attracted by the improved transport infrastructure & the cleaner, more enticing environment.

As Mayor, Ken will encourage Assembly Members to hawk the virtues of London round any body that is likely to bring jobs into Britain.

4. Smoking

Among the limited powers of the Mayor, as laid down in the Bill, it looks as if Ken will be able to ban smoking advertisements as soon as his feet are under his desk.

5. Planning density

There have been too many ghastly retail developments on the American 'mall' plan, low-rise & reliant on the car. Examples are at Tottenham Hale, Old Kent Road & Park Royal. In a small island, this is a criminal waste of space. Such developments in future will have to have at least three stories of flats above them & ready access to public transport. To encourage a better social mix, new developments should be horizontally stratified, with the posh housin lower down, middle-sized above and social housing on top, as in more successful continental cities.

6. Waste

A London-wide recycling scheme will be adopted, instead of the patchwork at present. If industry cannot take the volume of recyclable waste, then the GLA will encourge startup busineses from among the unemployed to reuse the stuff.

7. The Scandals of Listed Buildings

There are two & both relate to English Heritage's cavalier attitude towards costs. Firstly, charities which are unfortunate for historic reasons to find themselves with listed buildings (e.g St. Barnabas in Soho Square) have to spend precious funds donated for their cause on renovations dictated by English Heritage. Secondly, ordinary people in relatively modest homes find considerable extra costs loaded onto them by English Heritage demanding that expensive & often, environmentally inefficient renovations take place. If English Heritage want to preserve poeple's homes as museums for English Heritage, they can pay the extra costs. What they should do is purchase specimen buildings & maintain them at their own expense. Ken doesn't want to run English Heritage out of town but they are asking for it.

Links to the other Mayor pages:-
Transport
Crime
Tourism & Arts
Organisation
Organisation chart
Training
'Coming clean' (exposure of assets & liabilities)
Comment on the Greater London Authority Bill

Contact: Ken Baldry at 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY
+44(0)207 359 6294 or e-mail him
Copyright: Ken Baldry 1998 - 2002

URL: http://www.art-science.com/London/environment.htm
Last revised 7/11/2002