Building Strong Communities

Let's make the most of our green spaces. London has a series of footpaths that link them together, it cost TfL £6 million. The network was handed to the Boroughs in 2011 and many do not maintain them. It's time to revive this network, everyone stands to gain from these paths.

There are still references to the Capital Ring, the Green Chain Walk, and the London Loop on TfL's website but much more needs to be done if we wish to retain these pleasant paths.

I agree fully with this comment. I live in Tottenham and the council and developers are building many tower blocks and other developments locally often on council land and usually opposed by locals. In none of these developments has any extension of or new green space been planned despite increase in population expected to be over 5000. The council and developers seem to use CIL money to use park as an adjunct of the developments not benefitting locals by expanding and deepening its green facility. What are the planners thinking!

Overdevelopment will remain a problem as long as we continue to measure success in terms of economic growth. We need a total shift away from the accumulation of wealth as life's primary goal. London should embrace doughnut economics as Amsterdam has done.

In the meantime, there should be tougher legislation to:
- ensure Natural England's Access to Natural Green Space Standards are met in every London borough;
- ensure all new developments include 40% green space;
- make ecology surveys mandatory for all developments, to prevent further biodiversity loss;
- ensure a minimum 30% tree cover across London;
- protect mature trees (current system of compensation and replacement planting is inadequate).

Legally, how well protected are our green spaces and parks?
In Ealing, in order to remove a tiny maintenance expense, the council offered Warren Farm to QPR football club for no charge (yes, repeat, no charge) for QPR's new training ground.
Almost the entire site would have been lost to the public.
Warren Farm is 25 hectares of open space in Ealing, used for local football matches up to 2010.
It was never an industrial site and so in the decade since it was last used for football, wildlife has flourished.
The groups campaigning save Warren Farm for the public were alarmed to discover that there was no legal obstacle to prevent the council giving away a public green space. It was only because QPR abandoned the plan in 2019 that the site is still available.

In a similar cavalier fashion to the Warren Farm giveaway, Ealing council has plans for tall tower blocks in the Gurnel site, which is classed as "green belt" land - technically "metropolitan open land".
Last week, following a huge public outcry, the Ealing planning committee rejected the plan, but campaigners believe that the council is already looking for ways to overturn that decision.

These two examples show that Ealing council has, in effect, no strategy and no intention of protecting urban green spaces. How many other London councils have the same cavalier approach to green spaces?

I support the Mayor's campaign 100% on green spaces, but if councils can in practice ignore the mayor's plans, the outlook is not promising.
Colin Lomas, Hanwell, Ealing

The parks around me have been a life-saver during lockdown. Wonderful places
More parks would be fab but I understand that you'll have to pry the land from the developers who only see profit - how about legislating for new developments to include green areas? Some of the new develpments are a lot greener than they used to be but we can up the green acerage (and plant more tress?) :)