Life during lockdown

London City Airport must be closed down.

Located in Newham, which has the worst air quality in London, the airport serves virtually none of the community it pollutes and destroys.

The site it occupies is in zone 3, 100m from a primary school, and would be prime for residential and commercial development. 

Incentives from City Hall could convince the owners, who are just an investment fund trying to make money out of it, to change the use of the site from being an airport. 

This would have a transformative effect upon the local area in terms of quality of life and ability to open up the whole site to housing, which we so desperately need in overcrowded Newham.

I would love that electric scooters are finally properly regulated and allowed as form of transportation as this would allow Lime, Bird etc. to enter London and would speed up the commute without putting additional pressure on TfL.

Surely the majority of these ideas have been mooted before? It hasn't improved anything it has not  made London better to live in, It is still dirty, polluted crowded and with a lot of crime, if you haven't succeeded previously what makes you think you will succeed now? London is overcrowded, its infrastructure does not support the amount of people here, perhaps it's time to look at things from a different viewpoint maybe, build new towns, make London less crowded we're just cramming it full of more and more people, building masses of apartments to cram them into all those little boxes and completely ruining the outer boroughs.

Our concern is around funding for preschools and Nurseries. The Furlough scheme was very biased against us allowing us to only claim a third of the wages. As a good employer we made it up to 100% but now are left very short on funds. We support families returning to work and also vulnerable children but are facing an uncertain future. 
we would like the recovery scheme to help us.

Put on much more public transport - tubes and buses.  Stop reducing the number!!!

Keep people and property safe from riots and violent demonstrations - damage costs the economy money in terms of both healthcare and property.  

Reduce violent crime particulary knife crime which is disporportionately taking Black Lives.  

Create more green spaces

Don't re-elect Khan('t)! Useless waste of space, no wonder Tooting's such a hole after having him as MP for years. However, until the election (because he won't resign):

Free Winston's statue and try to understand that those of us whose families have lived in this country for centuries don't take kindly to being lectured by immigrants on what is "acceptable".

Stop pandering to aggressive minorities, thus making central London safe again for tourists, policemen and businesses.

Don't indulge in pathetic stunts such as the Trump "baby", as it just makes you look a fool.

Don't ever state that you "speak for Londoners", as you do not and will not ever speak for me.

Act more aggressively to reduce air pollution from road traffic, bringing forward the introduction of the ULEZ without allowing payment to pollute.Take note of the correlations between air pollution, poverty and impact of Covid-19, observed internationally. Note that air pollution is correlated with higher prevalence of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular disease and with poor development of children's lungs.

Oppose the re-opening of London City Airport. Its aircraft noise normally causes misery for thousands of Londoners. It would be an excellent site for housing and the development of a community with local work.

Consider alternative uses for office blocks, perhaps for housing or school space. Their financial value will plummet if working from home continues as the new normal. Definitely do not give planning permission for any more high rise buildings.

Ensure that older people's freedom pass continues to offer them free public transport within and across all London zones

All great aims.  I'm interested in how you will measure success.  I think there's a consensus that measuring GDP and unemployment rates are not enough - what other key wellness measures might London adopt, and what targets might we set?  

According to the Centre for Low Emission Construction (http://www.clec.uk/about/how-polluting-construction-industry) 34% of particle emission is due to construction compared to 27% from ALL road transport, and this does not include the emissions generated by the construction supply train (i.e. vehicles and plant).   I am well aware of the fondness of the powers that be for infrastructure and property development (very little of which, as has been pointed out, of benefit to the vast majority of Londoners) and can but assume that this is the reason there is very little mention of this type of pollution by any party or group.      What we cannot understand is why public funds are poured into infrastructure projects with, apparently, nothing in place to ensure that projects are delivered on time or within budget.  

In addition, whilst trumpeting the need for electric vehicles the overall harmful environmental effect of producing, running and disposing of batteries for electric vehicles is rarely mentioned, let alone discussed  https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/emissions/are-electric-cars-actually…; Much easier, and more lucrative, to berate private vehicle owners and charge/fine them for using the roads.

he extending of the ULEZ areas will affect millions of people who seldom venture into the existing area and will now, at a time of austerity and financial hardship, will be expected to "find" funds to replace their private vehicles.   A Petition against the extension has already attracted over 115,000 signatures.    https://www.change.org/p/sadiq-khan-stop-mayor-khan-s-ulez-zone-extensi…   It should not be ignored.

Economically, the worst hit from the crisis will be those who lose their jobs. It seems many are likely to do this, particularly in the entertainment and catering industries.  Brexit won't help. 

Those at the bottom and in the most precarious jobs are most at risk.  National policies are vital and the scope for City Hall to do much by itself might be limited, but every opportunity should be taken to provide useful employment directly and help others to provide it.  The emphasis however should be on the word useful: the work should if possible create and save wealth.  This doesn't include retail schemes that rely on people spending money they probably haven't got, but does include energy-saving measures that help reduce climate change as well as saving money.  

It's also worth noting that the cost of tranport is a barrier to work for those on low wages.  Walking or cycling to work can save a very significant sum of money over a period and help people find employment, so green transport schemes preferentially help those on the lowest wages.  Cycling to work is very practical for many who have journeys of five miles or less and secondhand bikes are cheap.  

We need to put the individuals and communities who are most disadvantaged into the driving seat.  We have to listen to what they say they need, not what we think they need.  Above all we have to give people hope.  Medical research shows that hope is a key factor in motivating people and in improving health and wellbeing. 

I'd like the aims to include making London more resilient in preparation for the next pandemic, which may arrive quite soon and could be worse than this one.

Wages

I think a good place to start would be recognising the work of London's lowest paid workers e.g. cleaners and carers, who for the most part have been on the front line during this current crisis and unable to stay at home and work from home. Give them a fair wage and that means Public Bodies stop this race to the bottom contracting out services for the lowest price

Public Transport

There are a suprising number of comments below about the increase in Congestion Charge. I say let's make London as car free as possible. Restaurants, cafes, etc could use more outdoor space in this time of social distancing, let's give them that opportunity and open up London to pedestrians. 

London should be fighting too to get similar levels of subsidy for public transport as the majority of cities in Europe. Let's invest in public transport and make it a service to be proud of.

A major need is for us all to feel safe and relaxed in public places, and that bars and restaurants open again.

Good toilets are essential if tourists and Londoners are to venture out.

My first suggestion is that The GLA should set up supervised portable toliets and washrooms on places like the South Bank, and other  places which are going to be the first choice of places to visit again when we are all released from lockdown.

Second, we need to be in a clean city.  I am APPALLED by the bottles, cups and glasses that are left on the Thames River wall along the whole of the South Bank, because people walk off, leaving these items on the top of the flood wall. This rubbish then blows or rolls off into the river.  NO-ONE is co-ordinating the prevention of this--not the South bank Centre, not Better Banskside, Bankside Open Spaces Trust, nor the Port of London, nor Thames Conservancy, Thames 21, nor  Southwark Council, nor Lambeth Council.....

How do I know?  easy--I contacted most of them to ask the simple question-- who is co-ordinating litter collection along this 2 mile stretch?

The answer ? NO-ONE !!!  

I asked them all if they would support having a simple artist designed railing along the top of the wall, plus more litter bins along the river walk , to stop and collect all this waste, that ends up in the Thames, the North Sea, and the Atlantic. Those who did not pass the buck, were all in favour, if someone paid for these things.

PLEASE could the GLA knock heads together, and get a co-ordinated strategy involving all these groups and businesses such as the brewers , Globe Theatre etc, to stop all this rubbish and littre getting in the river ? 

I would like to see all London unemployed young people having a structured citizen service training, to include litter picking, computer training, engaging the public, in a Thames Bank TLC campaign.

I would add two priorities

1 set up a broad based group to develop and implement plans to tackle empty retail premises

2 stop all new hotel and apart hotel development in central London and investigate whether any planned hotel sites can be turned over to affordable housing 

IMHO, London's most urgent pre-Covid problems were and remain:

a) unaffordable accommodation for working class singles and families, causing an excessive commuting burden and enforcing poverty,

b) public transport working at maximum capacity during increasing periods during the day, leading to extensive disruption when part of the system breaks down, ever more frequently,

c) outdated Victorian infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, sewers, gas mains, rail track, etc.) that requires constant, expensive maintenance,

d) serious air pollution from multiple sources (diesel-powered vehicles, obsolete building heating units, industry, etc.),

e) areas where cellphone reception and internet speeds are poor, despite high costs, limiting technical capacity and efficiency, and

f) public services reduced in quantity and quality due to systematic under-funding over the past 2 decades (NHS, fire brigades, community policing, prison service, public works inspection, legal aid, post offices, job centres, community centres, Arts Council, etc.).

The Mayor of London should conduct a full-scale, inclusive, independent, blue-ribbon consultation on economically- and technically-feasible solutions to these 6 truly massive problems. Their planning and implementation will require long-term, apolitical vision and consensus, a massive investment and a decade to complete.  There will be opportunities to deal with other issues like recycling, pedestrianization and bike lanes, energy efficiency of buildings and much more in the course of dealing with the really formidable issues above.  We need to recognize that none of us has the answers, and that no political approach will satisfy everyone.  It is vital that proposed solutions be evidence-based and that decision-making is transparent.  Utopian?  Maybe, but it's the only realistic and sustainable way forward.