The campaign aims to better connect Londoners with green space and wildlife. Picture: St Peter's Square
Hammersmith & Fulham Council is backing a campaign to make London a ‘National Park City’.
On 5 March, the council’s Cabinet is set to agree to endorse the plans, which aim to help Londoners better connect with nature, improving health and wellbeing and enhancing wildlife.
Green spaces and waterways would get better protection against development in the same way as the country’s national parks are protected for their beauty and value.
“We’re delighted to be a part of this campaign to protect our city’s green spaces and promote greener, healthier lifestyles,” said Cllr Wesley Harcourt, H&F Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Residents’ Services.
“We aim to be the council at the vanguard of environmental change in London, so backing this campaign was an obvious choice.”
The campaign, organised by charity National Park City Foundation, aims to make the capital greener, wilder and healthier by protecting existing green spaces and creating new ones to better connect people with nature.
Supporting the proposal to make London a National Park City was one of the recommendations from the resident-led Biodiversity Commission, that the council had asked to explore how to improve and preserve wildlife in the borough.
How will it help?
The campaign to make Greater London the world’s first National Park City will help:
- ensure all Londoners have free and easy access to high-quality green space
- connect all of London’s children to nature
- make the majority of London physically green
- improve London’s air and water quality, year on year
- improve the richness, connectivity and biodiversity of London’s habitats
- inspire the building of affordable green homes
- inspire new business activities
- promote London as a Green World City
- nurture a shared National Park City identity for Londoners.
The decision further compounds H&F Council’s aspiration to be the most environmentally positive borough in the country.
It also follows the council’s decision in December, pledging to protect the borough’s parks and green spaces, preserving them in perpetuity for future generations.
Our environmental credentials
- We’ve been working with residents to tackle air pollution
- We’re encouraging residents to plant up tree bases
- We have installed 130 electric vehicle charging points
- We launched London’s first electric car club
- We launched a resident-led commission to boost biodiversity
- We’re promoting cycling and sustainable transport
- We were the first London borough to halt standardised spraying of glyphosate chemical herbicides
- Introduced a Street Czar to help keep our streets clean and tidy
- See what else we’re doing to become the greenest borough in the country.
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