Category Archives: Environment

Discovering Our Green City

Environment, Local Community, Open Spaces

Westminster Adult Education Authority have joined forces with our friends the HCGA to introduce Westminster residents to our green city.

Each week, from May to early July, residents will visit various locations around the city and some of those visits will include hands-on, practical gardening.  The visits are free but transport to and from is not so bring your Travelcard.

Donations are always welcome!

Please check the “How to Garden” course here.

For more information, please email bookings@nullhcga.org.uk or call 07 773 334 294

Air Pollution Update

Environment, Local Community

Air Pollution in Queen’s Park (article taken from the Queen’s Park Community Council Newsletter)

Report by founder friend and regular gardener, Ray Lancashire.

Queen’s Park Community Council’s first citizen science air pollution project was conducted in June 2017, funded by QPCC with support from community volunteers and in partnership with the London Sustainability Exchange.

Twenty diffusion tubes were mounted on street lamps, for one month, around the Queen’s Park ward, paying particular attention to stretches of Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane, outside Queen’s Park and Wilberforce Primary Schools, and Queen’s Park Library. These areas are used by adults and young children on a daily basis.

Low-tech acrylic diffusion tubes were used to collect ambient Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) from the air. The tube’s cap contains an absorbent which absorbs NO2 produced by motor vehicle exhaust gases expelled by cars, buses and lorries. After a one month period the tubes are taken down, the concentration of NO2 absorbed is analysed and a mean average total is arrived at. This figure is used to compare the levels of NO2 against annual limits laid down by the European Union.

The European Union’s annual legal limit for NO2 is 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air. The results show Harrow Road has higher NO2 levels than the EU legal limit (40 µg/m3) and in some cases double the legal limit. Research suggests that prolonged exposure to NO2 has an adverse effect on health and reducing life expectancy.

Although Kilburn Lane shows lower levels of NO2 it is still above the legal limit. It is worth noting that Queen’s Park and Wilberforce Primary Schools are both above the EU legal limit even though they are located away from main roads.

This report has been distributed to your Westminster City Ward Councillors. To view the map of the findings, please visit the QPCC website.

South East Queens Park 20 mph Trials

Environment, Local Community, Wildlife Area

New speed limits are rolling out across Westminster. This trial is bringing 20mph roads to the areas surrounding 38 schools, enabling the council to consult local schools, residents and businesses to judge its effectiveness before changing the limit on more roads. The program is aiming to increase walking and cycling by making vulnerable road users feel safer.

A reassuringly large area to the east of the Avenues and going into Maida Vale (from Bravington Road to Lanark Road) are included in Westminster’s 20mph trials over the next couple of years.

Also parts of Droop Street and Dart Street will be trialed. You may have already noticed the old  30mph signs have been covered over and some illuminated detector ‘slow down’ signs are already in place. The 20mph limits are being implemented in areas highlighted by a road safety review and as a result of residents’ requests for speed restrictions.

Local schools, businesses and residents views will also be sought before, during and after the 20mph trials. This will give better understanding of their impact and inform the next step.

You can read more about it here and download a map.

Vote for The Avenues!

Environment, Local Community

The Avenues Youth Project is in the running for a share of the £300,000 M&S Energy Community Energy Fund.

The Avenues has launched a campaign calling for the local community and friends of the Avenues to show its support after it was shortlisted for a national renewable community energy project competition.

The competition is now open to the public vote. 

They are hoping to replace expensive lighting throughout the building with LED bulbs and motion sensors.  This will enable them to attain 70% savings in bills and Co2!

All of the money that is saved will be put back into the work that they do with children and young people.

 They’d be one step nearer to achieving their goal if they can get your support so we’d like to encourage you to get online and vote here.

 A local parent who recognises the benefit of energy saving said:

“I’m really excited to support the Avenues and am looking forward to seeing the results if they are successful. It will be a massive benefit for the local community if they do receive the funding”

 For more information on the project and to vote please visit

 https://www.mandsenergyfund.com/projects/the-avenues-youth-project/vote

   Carol Archibald |  Programme Manager | 020 8969 9552

LOOK AVENUES.ORG.UK  | WATCH AVES YOUTH TV | LISTEN AVENUES RADIO

3-7 Third Avenue London W10 4RS, Registered Charity no. 1090210

 

Nomadic Community Garden

Allotments, Community Gardening, Environment, Local Community, Open Spaces

There’s a new community garden project just south of the railway tracks in Claremont Road, behind the station, where the printers used to be.

Nomadic Community Gardens (NCG) is a not-for-profit social enterprise, that temporarily transforms previously empty land awaiting development, into an urban oasis open for use by the public, where people can grow their own produce, create art, share skills and discover what it means to build their own community.

Activities you can expect from this site are allotments, fruit harvesting, DIY workshops, beekeeping, street art and sculptures, respite area, butterfly homes and anything else you want to see!
They need artists, gardening and maintenance volunteers, pop-ups, entertainers and anyone who has a skill set they can share (the list goes on!).
This space is an opportunity for residents of the Queen’s Park area to make it their own, look after it and help to build it up into a valued asset for the local community.
Please spread the word!

Please note the opening times at the bottom (closed on Mondays).

Opening times will vary but generally follow sunlight hours. The gardens will be closed on Mondays.

Summer

Monday: closed
 Tuesday: 9-7
Wednesday: 9-7
 Thursday: 9-7
  Friday: 9-7
 Saturday: 9-7
  Sunday: 9-7

Winter

Monday: Closed
 Tuesday: 9-4
Wednesday: 9-4
 Thursday: 9-4
  Friday: 9-4
 Saturday: 9-4
  Sunday: 9-4