A Green New Deal

This is a beautifully presented proposal.  Who could argue against helping the environment?? But it isn't a particularly balanced view of the situation.  I am currently living through a (multi-million pound) 'trial' of new bike and cycle routes. The pollution is horrendous and it damages businesses struggling to come back after lockdown.  It seems particularly ill thought through at a time when we are being told not to go on public transport.  Perhaps if you are a single person it is perfectly feasible to walk or cycle everywhere but it isn't realistic with a 2 year old.  I think if you look at Nextdoor you will find there is far more opposition than is evident on this page...

We are better than this.  We should be able to find a way to help the environment without ruining lives and crushing people's businesses. Please think again. 

Let people use their own (not hired) electric scooters on the roads/in the cycle/bus lanes.

As Covid-19 makes people's lungs more susceptible, removing cars from the roads and replacing them with e-scooters would greatly reduce the amount of air pollution and reduce traffic jams on the roads.  It was so lovely and quiet in lockdown and my husband's asthma was so much better without all the pollution.

Cycle lanes need to be completely separated from cars by a physical barrier.  Pinch points that force cyclist into the path of following buses, lorries and cars do nothing to promote cycle safety.  Cyclists shouldn't be forced to use cycle lanes that take them off the main roads, up side roads that are hilly - let the cars use those and the cycles/e-scooters have the flat routes.

What is completely unacceptable is Boris telling everyone to get back in their cars to go to work.

This is a really impressive manifesto for a green new deal - the key to success will be to really get London's businesses on board for a sustainable future.

I used to work in theatre and projects that I looked at in terms of sustainability included reducing the carbon footprint with digital ticketing and advertising. Manchester has made a really good start with this.

Whilst coronavirus has been devastating for live entertainment across the board let's not rush back to how it was before - let's take opportunities to reinvent - reducing costs and contact where we can and greening the industry wherever possible.

When theatre comes back let's look at how we can save costs and reduce it's carbon footprint - minimising paper ticketing and advertising, using carbon neutral or carbon free transport solutions for audience transport (eg trains not coaches) and industry transport too...

One simple change that would greatly improve our air would be to ban two-stroke engines. The city has tons of noisy mopeds and motorbikes that contribute a wildly outsized volume of air pollution.

I love these initiatives and the climate emergency cannot wait any second longer, the more we wait to take action, the more we increase our risk of dying young. However I feel I've seen such initiatives and promises 5 and 10 years ago as well, with targets for 2020, and now it's 2020 and we haven't discussed whether those targets were met at all. How can we make these targets legally binding and ensure they are followed through carefully, as well as get monthly or semi-anually reports on progress, to make sure we actually do respect them?

With the encouragement of more bikes on the road access to bike safety classes  need to be made available and in some cases become mandatory as the streets are becoming more hazardous.

This should be the absolute top priority during recovery, for the sake of London and the world. London could become a global leader on green recovery.

I support all the measures outlined, but they don't go far enough. London needs to be a carbon-zero city by 2030 at the latest.

Addressing climate change and ecological breakdown is the most important issue of our times. The post-Covid recovery, with so much of the economy in tatters, presents the best opportunity we will ever have to rebuild in a fairer, greener way. The importance of combining climate and social justice is well illustrated by today's announcement of job losses at British Airways. While it is vital for the survival of our planet that we drastically reduce flying, job losses should be made acceptable by offers of retraining and redeployment in new sectors of the economy such as retrofitting buildings and planting more trees.

Regarding transport, electric cars are for many reasons clearly not the answer - though electric motorbikes should be encouraged. We need people to drive less not drive different cars. Improving public transport (less crowded tube trains, more reliable buses, more bus routes) and better facilities for cycling and walking, alongside increasing ULEZs and low traffic neighbourhood schemes, school streets, etc, should aim to make driving a much less desirable choice for Londoners.

All sounds quite hight and mighty but not suitable for this huge metropolis we live in. Forget the 'climate emergency' - thats for our Government and others to develop and roll out across the country/world. Reduce pollution by making more green spaces, plant trees and by all means encourage people to use public transport but you have to get that right first. Its a nonsense to tell people to walk or cycle to work when many live quite a distance from their place of work, many are not confident on a bike and the weather here is cold, wet & windy for a large part of the year...get real! Give people the choice - widen the roads and make them free-flowing (the south circular is a joke!), improve cycle lanes so that they don't suddenly run out and improve public transport.

Creating a network of long distance walking and cycling routes, properly designed and worked out, which stretch right out as far as 10-15 miles away is essential and a great opportunity. Each would have a name and an identity, and be signposted, a bit like creating long distance footpaths but in and out of London not just around it (London Loop etc.)

How does a new four lane motorway with no cycling or walking or room for cargo bikes fit in with a Green New Deal? 

It will bring new bigger HGVs into Greenwich and Newham. It is carbon intensive. It will make our air quality worse. 

It goes against everything Mayor of London purports to stand for.

South east Londoners will face massive disruption for six years while it’s built then be charged to cross the river by both Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnels, to pay back the crippling PFI.

#SilvertownTunnel must be stopped. 

The incredible conceit here is that somehow the Mayor of London and London Assembly can create new businesses that it believes are noble and worthwhile, by the process of taxing other businesses that are sustainable to subsidise those that are not viable.  This is the political economic philosophy espoused at the last General Election by the Green Party, which got 2.7% of the vote.  How is this to be paid for?

Retrofitting buildings (with insulation and new heating) is a transfer to those who haven't maintained their buildings and will gain from energy savings paid for by others.  What are "community and renewable energy projects"?  There is no serious means for London to generate most of its electricity locally, it's going to be nuclear and gas powered energy that does it, despite the wishful thinking of a tiny activist group that don't understand energy.  Transport policy for the last twenty years has been focused on cycling (although pedestrian crossings at traffic lights across London often don't exist) and on making driving unpleasant, but the result has been worse pollution and congestion AND people are avoiding public transport because of Covid19 for good reason.  There is no money to fund this nonsense when the roads can't even be properly maintained.

We absolutely must plant urban trees everywhere possible, start watering growing trees and also give protection to mature trees from development and also from aggressive tree "surgeons" who cut too much and too often. I'm not even sure why they cut branches from perfectly healthy trees. We also need to release councils from liability for tree incidents, so that they become communal natural feature, rather than council's maintenance responsibility.

Another important thing to do is to quickly seed as many London lawns as possible, to turn them into urban meadows to boost healthy insect, bird and mammal populations.

It's one thing to incentivize cycling and electric cars, and insist that builders install solar panels and vertical gardens. But it's equally critical to not forget where we come from.

By not exempting Classic cars from all charges, despite their incredibly low use and negligible numbers, you are literally deleting joy from tourists and Londoners who come to and admire our city for its rich history. These moving monuments are a part of that history and do no measurable harm to our city. The few that are left should be treasured and encouraged to ply on our roads, not taxed into oblivion.