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Text of an Enfield Green Party press release issued on 29 April 2018
Our streets were laid out to serve people on foot, cyclists and a few motor vehicles. But today the vehicles dominate residential streets. Cars in motion or idling pollute our air and make parents too fearful to let children walk or cycle to school.
“The health and wellbeing of people must come first” says Enfield Green Party co-chair Alex McRae. “Motor vehicles are part of modern life, but drivers should not be allowed to speed through residential streets to save a little travel time.”
The places where people live, shop and go to school should be low-traffic neighbourhoods. They often aren’t.
“Look at the streets south of the North Circular in Bowes ward,” says local resident and Green Party council candidate Liz Wright. “Brownlow, Warwick and adjacent roads see over 15,000 cars, vans and lorries every day. And it’s been like that for years. So we want the area between the North Circular, Bounds Green Road and Green Lanes to be a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) allowing traffic to go in and out but not through.”
Enfield Green Party developed the LTN plan following advice from members of Better Streets for Enfield. Its key features will be controls that allow people, buses and bikes, but not other motor vehicles, to pass through.
“In Waltham Forest LTNs have brought peace to dozens of streets and actually reduced total traffic. That’s what I want for Enfield,” says Liz. Enfield Green Party advocates the creation of LTNs to reduce traffic across the whole of Enfield, together with other measures to promote walking and cycling.
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Research carried out by Green London Assembly member Sian Berry has revealed the shocking amount by which youth services in London have been cut since 2011 - the cumulative amount adds up to more than £145 million.
Sian has been instrumental in beginning to reverse these cuts. In February she announced that she had succeeded in persuading Mayor Sadiq Khan to create a £45 million three-year fund to support youth services - see her celebratory Facebook post.
Enfield Greens are committed to restoring the necessary level of funding for youth services in the borough - in order to improve the health and happiness of future generations (not to mention improving the lives of their parents).
Sian's report into cuts in youth services
Main findings 2011/12 to 2017/18:
- At least £39 million has been cut from council youth service budgets across London.
- Overall, there has been a 44 per cent youth service budget cut, with the average council taking £1.5 million out of youth services over this time.
- Across 25 councils with like-for-like data, 81 youth centres and major councilsupported youth projects have been cut.
- Across 22 councils with like-for-like data, 800 youth service full-time posts have gone.
- At least a further £1.2 million is being cut from 15 councils in 2018/19 budgets.
- Since 2011, the cumulative amount not spent on services for young people in London is now more than £145 million.
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Buildings last a long time. Many of us live in houses built well over 100 years ago. Many public buildings – eg schools, libraries, railway stations – have also existed for many decades.
When we build today we are building for the future; so we need to think about the future we are building for.
The future is always uncertain but one of the least uncertain things is this: Our climate, nationally and globally, will be warmer. Climate change is already causing floods, droughts and heatwaves. To avoid catastrophic change we must stop using fossil fuels and to make this tolerable we must use energy much more efficiently.
In the case of buildings that means adopting much higher standards for energy efficiency and insisting that new buildings comply with them. The second point is critical. Many studies have shown that most buildings – even those claiming ‘green’ credentials – perform less well in comfort and energy efficiency than expected. This is due both poor design and poor workmanship.
The solution is to build according to Passivhaus principles since, uniquely, passivhaus defines a design process, standards and an inspection regime. The key principles of Passivhaus are:
- Insulation rather than heating.
- Design to avoid thermal bridges (which remove heat and create cold spots)
- High quality work to avoid draughts
- Mechanical ventilation
- Recovery of heat from expelled air.
The results are impressive:
- Many ‘Passivhauses’ get most of their space heating from domestic appliances and home computers.
- A Passivhaus school in Wolverhampton is heated by a single, domestic size, gas boiler.
Enfield Green Party policy, adopted in 2012, is to
- Require all new Council-funded buildings to use Passivhaus.
- Make Passivhaus-equivalent performance (especially the requirement that space heating should need no more than 15 kWh/m2 pa) a planning approval condition for all new buildings. Developers who claim to achieve this performance without fully adopting passivhaus should be required to (1) demonstrate that their plans will achieve this, (2) pay for a post-occupancy energy audit and (3) pay the buyers’ compensation for any expected excess energy use over the first 30 years of occupancy. In estimating energy performance it should not be sufficient to rely on SAP2009 calculations.
- Work with local developers and building professionals to ensure that they understand the new standards and how to achieve them. It may, in order to encourage the Greening of the local construction industry, be appropriate to subsidise some professional training.
In addition
Energy is not the only resource that is likely to become scarce. New housing should also conserve water by capturing rainwater and reusing grey water.
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Enfield Green Party has been surveying residents to find out what you think of local services. We know litter, fly-tipping and waste collections are a priority. We will improve waste services to make it easier for people to recycle, particularly in flats and shared housing. We will introduce more recycling bins in public places and encourage local businesses to adopt greener waste strategies.
surveying residents to find out what
you think of local services. We
know litter, fly-tipping and waste
collections are a priority. We will
improve waste services to make it
easier for people to recycle,
particularly in flats and shared
housing. We will introduce more
recycling bins in public places and
encourage local businesses to
adopt greener waste strategies.