Cabinet to discuss environmental proposals to support Covid-19 recovery.
Newham Council is poised to introduce a range of new social distancing, walking and cycling projects, which will embed a range of environmental improvements as it continues to promote public health priorities in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz and the Council’s Cabinet members will be discussing proposals on 11 June that include the reallocation of road space for pedestrians, more school streets schemes, temporary cycle lanes on main roads and low traffic neighbourhoods.
Councillor James Asser, Cabinet member for environment, highways and sustainable transport, said: “As we celebrate World Environment Day, we are reaffirming our commitment to tackling poor air quality, encouraging the use of sustainable transport and reducing waste.
“The challenges thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic have shown us how important these proposed measures are and that we need to adopt them permanently as a positive legacy of this unprecedented time. It is clear that there can be no return to pre-Covid-19 levels of traffic, air pollution or forms of transport that cause lasting damage to our environment and health.
“We are working with neighbouring boroughs, the Mayor of London and central government to get the necessary resources and plans in place to improve quality of life and build a cleaner, healthier borough to help all our residents.”
World Environment Day is celebrated around the globe to encourage people to focus on the effect people can and do have on the planet we share. This year the United Nations, which organises the day, wants countries to focus on “building back better” – an aspiration to hold on to the few positives to have emerged as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
In Newham there has been a 40 per cent reduction in road traffic due to Covid-19 lockdown and a corresponding 50 per cent reduction in noxious NO2 pollution which cause a range of serious respiratory health conditions that make people vulnerable to the worst effects of Covid-19. The Council has already started widening pavements in the borough’s busiest high streets and is bidding for funding from the Government for more measures to help cycling and walking.
In 2019, the Council launched its ‘Newham Climate Now’ agenda in response to the global climate and health emergency, and it is even more urgent as we respond to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Councillor Mas Patel, Newham’s Commissioner for Air Quality and Climate Change, said: “Everyone has noticed how the reduction in traffic and pollution created by the lockdown has positively improved air quality and our local environment, which is an important aspect of minimising the terrible impact of Covid-19. It’s given us a glimpse of what our future can look like if we embrace a commitment to adjust our travel habits and switch to cleaner, greener, and healthier ways to get around, especially for short local journeys, for the benefit of public health in Newham.”
The report to Cabinet proposes to re-implement the Healthy School Streets initiative after it was suspended at the beginning of the lockdown, which means enforcement will return at Woodgrange Infant School, Godwin Junior School, Chobham Academy, West Ham Church of England Primary, and Lathom Junior School as and when the schools re-open.
Two further schools, Kaye Rowe Nursery and Children’s Centre in Forest Gate and Park Primary in Stratford, are set to have similar traffic calming schemes in place by the end of the month, with others to follow. The proposed schemes involve streets around schools being closed to traffic during drop-off and pick-up times.
World Environment Day also calls for urgent action to protect biodiversity. The current pandemic has brought into sharp focus fact that when we destroy biodiversity, we destroy the system that supports human life.
Newham Council is supporting the effort to support biodiversity with its commitment to greening projects across the borough to protect local species, encourage new wildlife, and offer residents green spaces to relax and interact with nature.
During 2019 several green spaces were created with local planting and greening, including the creation of green walls, and “parklets”. By the end of the year the Council plans to plant an additional 1,000 new trees as part of the London Mayor’s commitment to increase the Capital’s existing tree canopy cover by 10 per cent by 2050. This follows on from 8,000 saplings the Council planted in autumn 2019.
You can read the proposals that are being discussed by Cabinet.