Greens call for more ’15-minute neighbourhoods’

Members of the Green Party on the London Assembly have called for more ’15-minute neighbourhoods’ in the capital. 

Speaking at the London Mayor’s regular question time event, Green assembly member Caroline Russell asked Sadiq Khan what he is doing to plan for 15-minute neighbourhoods, where Londoners can live, work and access services within an easy walk of their home.

A 15-minute neighbourhood is a popular term for describing an approach to planning local communities, so that all the services and businesses needed for daily life are within a quarter of an hour walk.

This is a way of enabling the shift to walking and cycling, and should be accompanied with measures to provide safe walking and cycling routes, as well as a focus on supporting local businsesses and communities.

The mayor said he is looking at ‘using TfL to see if we can provide local office space’ and revealed that he working with local councils to provide temporary working space as well.

Speaking afterwards, Ms Russell said: ‘I presented the mayor today with three needs that communities have as London recovers – space to work, space for the local economy and space for growing – and he was supportive of all three.

‘Londoners have improvised offices in their bedrooms or at their kitchen tables – but may need spaces they can go to, when the building work outside is too noisy, In recent figures released by the ONS, London residents were also found to be the least likely to have access to a garden. or their internet fails.

‘The mayor has responded to my call for workspace with the offer of space in TfL offices and through work with councils, I look forward to hearing more,’ she added.

‘As we come out of lockdown, we are still living very local lives. We need to rethink how London’s roads can support Londoners and businesses. Simply getting tables and chairs into a street to let cafes reopen safely, or greening parking bays to provide space for communities to grow plants and relax can be transformative.

‘People across London will be so glad to hear that the mayor is supporting the call for car parking to be turned over to gardens. With green space at such a premium, we need to turn the grey green, boost London’s biodiversity and help Londoners’ wellbeing,’ she added.

Fields in Trust’s recent Green Space Index shows that Londoners have the lowest amount of publicly accessible park and green space, with just 18.96 square metes per person.

Recent figures released by the ONS also show that Londoners are also found to be the least likely to have access to a garden.

Photo Credit – Jamie Hailstone