Healthy places

We have lots of lovely parks - fantastic for families, physical activities (sports, playgrounds), wildlife, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Win:win all around. In the last 2 years of so I have noticed that many of our parks are managed/maintained less and less by our local Council/contractors and more of them seem to be relying on local volunteers. This works up to a point. Willing and able volunteers do a great job but some tasks may not suitable for them - fallen trees, dredging ponds etc. Random visits by contractors seem to blitz everything in sight as they have no time to do a less brutal job. Please look after our parks and green spaces - they are essential.

Air pollution is a huge concern for me. It is unavoidable, to state the obvious. From traffic, industries and big plants such as incinerators. The move to promote electric vehicles will help - lets have more charging points out there, and more electric buses and goods vehicles. I was absolutely amazed (not in a good way) to hear about a new waste incinerator being built in a highly populated area right now. Why on earth is this allowed to happen? Surely pumping noxious fumes over vast numbers of people can't be right? And why are recyclable materials being allowed to go up in smoke (and then into our lungs?). More recycling please. And even more recycling.

I live in a pleasant area with plenty of open space and trees. There is more traffic than I would like, and certainly more litter. I wish people would appreciate and care for their environment. I pick up recyclables in the street and recycle them in my own green bin. We have a leisure centre and there is exercise equipment in the park. I don't use either as I think I have enough exercise as it is.

I would like to see a lot more done about air quality in my local area, especially traffic fumes. Car pollution is appalling in West Dulwich. The fumes, noise, aggression and selfishness make me into a nervous wreck.

In our local park there is an outdoor gym for adults, but it is always overrun with children who could/should be using the plentiful equipment in the playground. Even if you stand nearby hoping to get a turn, they won't budge and their parents seem to think it's a right for them to use the adult equipment for as long as they want, even if an adult is waiting.

Drinking, smoking and using drugs in local park puts me off going there. Also rape, stubbing and robbing frequency is rising. Women are even advised not to go out alone. Not easy to get healthy physical activity. Outdoor exercises are better for your mental wellbeing than the gym.
Installing CCTV cameras would make our parks safer.

Air pollution on London streets needs to be met by restricting road traffic to vehicles that meet stringent emission standards. Pedestrianising streets such as Oxford St is NOT the solution, as this would simply re-route the polluting vehicles to neighbouring streets which are more residential than Oxford St, thereby compounding the problem for many more Londoners rather than solving it.

I like to see trees - the more the better. It helps to 'soften' an area and take away the brutality of pavement, stone and brick. I live in Enfield, which is a pretty leafy borough and we have a park nearby with a lake and assorted wildlife. The New River runs through the town.

Part of being a healthy community is having a nice place to live and this is clearly a problem for many at the moment, with the obscene prices of property and also of rents. We badly need more affordable homes and good quality social housing.

Good transport links are also vital for a healthy community in order to get to work easily, to see friends or family and to go shopping or sight seeing in the local area or elsewhere. At. the moment, Enfield is suffering the imposition of a segregated cycle lane along the A105 between Palmers Green and Enfield and that is causing absolute chaos and mayhem. The thinking is that this will get more folk out cycling, which would reduce traffic and make folk more healthy - this is a laudable aim, but this cycle lane is not the way to achieve that in my view and also in the view of many of us in the area. About £42M is being spent on this project - I would say wasted on this project, as I would have thought the council would have higher priorities, like finding affordable homes. What was once a wide road has now been reduced in width, so that cars will be blocked from overtaking buses in the rush hour period, which will add to pollution and will also mean that emergency services will have a problem in the future getting through at these times. Bus lanes have been replaced by these cycle lanes, thus slowing down the buses as well. Several businesses have had to shut, partly through high rates and also because of the prolonged road works which has interfered with their trade, thus not helping with a policy of regeneration, which ironically Enfield Council want to achieve. Even one or two cycle shops have closed!

Never mind, we have local elections next year..

Pollution from cars is grim, and I [have no choice but to] live on the high street. We're also assaulted by fumes and god-knows-what from the various frying fast-food places around. There's no escape, because it comes right into the flat. Council is indifferent and/or lacks powers to get them to filter better.

Noise pollution from late night deliveries is a constant sleep-disrupter. We battle them constantly, they come back constantly. Sleep deprivation from this has made me feel murderous many times.

Feral kids roaming around, breaking in - the feeling of being under siege and police not interested is stress-inducing.

There are no health/leisure facilities where I live (or none that I would want to/could afford to frequent as an older woman). The one good thing is the allotments dotted around. That's a real, total haven of peace, like-minded people and healthy food. Without that, I'd probably have cracked.