Give me roads paved with trees and flowers
Also a Wembley theatre is taking Brent Council to court ⚖️, Brent Council is advocating for a tourist tax 💷 and Grange Park toilets are reopening with a splash (of paint)!
London is a harsh social environment. The capital streets are not “paved with gold”, contrary to the saying that comes from a 19th century story. Because of the huge housing costs, half of the children in London are growing up in households with inadequate incomes. The fastest way to solve this problem is to build social houses - instead of so-called affordable houses, obviously.
The capital is also a hostile physical environment. I am talking about the fabric of our streets. Pedestrianised areas are few and far between. People are not given the space that they need to move around freely and safely.
More often than not, in London, you find yourself squeezed onto narrow pavements, with few (if any) public benches in sight where to take a rest. The other day, I saw a woman eating a sandwich on a bench on Oxford Street surrounded by a constant flow of people. She looked like she was doing out of place when, in fact, eating a packed lunch on Oxford Street - or any streets in London - should be a completely normal and pleasant thing to do. (Maybe it should be a new planning criteria - design a public space where you would feel comfortable enough to sit down and have your packed lunch.)
I hope that the forthcoming pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, as well as Regent’s Street and surrounding areas, will prove a turning point for London and English cities. For now, at least, there is a general sense in England that streets do not belong to people, that they are only transient spaces where we are not supposed to linger. It’s not just an impression : the police has a more than a say in street and building planning.
As a French citizen who grew up in a city with a very large pedestrianised area, I find the defiance of the authorities towards people gathering on the street puzzling. I cannot imagine for a second that England could ever organise an event similar to La Fête de la musique which takes place on June 21st every year in France and across 120 countries in the world.
This article is not all about doom and gloom, by the way. There is a good story coming. Still, I think it’s important to paint the full (rather ugly!) picture.
On top of everything aforementioned, fifteen years of austerity have led to a degradation of our streets, squares and parks - known as the public realm. The other day, I almost got whiplash as I cycled onto a larger than usual pothole in my local area. Still, I find cycling a much nicer experience than walking in Brent. Pavements are in a very poor state of repair, so much so that walking about is more of a chore than a pleasure. Think broken slabs, sad remnants of trees taken down by the council, pitiful tree pits and a general lack of greenery.
Fewer car parking spaces, more parklets
Now, let me transport you to another part of London, south of the river Thames, where the everyday experience of walking around has been improved thanks to an ambitious kerbside strategy. What is the kerbside? It is a section of road mostly dedicated to car parking. I find it an extremely ugly word, probably because the kerbside is fundamentally a public space that got downgraded with the dominance of cars. It evokes images of discarded plastic bottles, coffee cups and all the litter left behind by too many car drivers in my local area.
Two years ago, the borough of Lambeth - which includes Waterloo and Brixton, among others and where 60% of residents do not own a car - adopted an ambitious kerbside strategy. The objective of Lambeth Council is to transform 25% of the borough’s kerbside space “into places for people, and not just cars” by 2030.
Considering that Lambeth kerbside would stretch out all the way to Edinburgh if it was a single road, taking away a quarter of this space currently occupied by cars to make more space for pedestrians, people with mobility issues, cyclists and greenery should result into a significant change of landscape.
Lambeth has already almost doubled the amount of climate resilient kerbside across the borough by creating 2.3km of protected cycle lanes, adding 266 residential cycle hangars, piloting 3 business hangars and creating 9 parklets etc. As part of this strategy, Lambeth has also designed a 500m long car free, green and colourful child-friendly space, Kennington Oval Reimagined - which is on my list of places to visit with my children.
I am convinced that Lambeth kerbside strategy is the way forward. Some Brent councillors seem equally inspired by the example set by a fellow Labour-led London council. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a Kerbside Management Scrutiny Task Group, chaired by Councillor Mary Mitchell, was created at the end of April. I do hope that it will result in a rapid, tangible and climate-resilient change that will also make our streets beautiful again.
Read Lambeth Kerbside Progress Report here.
Parking Reform Network (PRN) : a global network of people who educate the public about the impact of parking policy on climate change, equity, housing, and traffic. The American not-for-profit organisation was founded by Tony Jordan in Portland, Oregon. The impact made by PRN in the USA and Canada is impressive.
🗞️ News
💷 Brent is calling on the government to allow councils in England to introduce a tourist tax. (Brent Council and Wembley Matters)
↳ Councillor Mary Mitchell presented a motion at a Full Council meeting on Monday 6in favour of introducing a ‘visitor levy’ similar to the one introduced by Glasgow City Council.
↳ Councillor Mitchell pointed at the fact that the Scottish council has been granted powers to introduce a Visitor Levy (on average £4.83 per night), which could generate £16m in additional income from overnight stays, with the funds ringfenced for services such as street sweeping, parks, infrastructure, and environmental enforcement.
↳ Her motion was passed with the support of the Liberal Democrat councillors.
⚖️ East Lane Theatre Company is taking Brent Council to court (Harrow On Line)
↳ The Wembley community theatre has served the council with court papers over plans to hike its rent, accusing it of “destroying theatres” by pricing them out.
↳ “When the club’s lease expired in 2022, at which point it was paying £1,500 a year in rent, the council initially proposed hiking it to a staggering £75,000 – a 5,000 per cent increase. Last month, that offer dropped significantly to £5,000 a year but with a caveat – the building must also be used as a nursery.”
↳Speaking at a recent Brent Council meeting (July 7), East Lane Theatre member Susan O’Connell claimed the current buildings are “completely unsuitable for this use”.
🚫 Brent is considering recommending a smartphone ban in schools from 2026 (Brent Council)
↳ Also, on Monday, a motion regarding smartphones in schools was passed with the approval of all political parties.
↳ The motion states that the council should examine the case for “issuing a boroughwide recommendation to primary and secondary schools by the start of January 2026, to adopt stricter smartphone use policies during school hours.”
↳ This move coincides with recently published research from the Netherlands – one of the first countries to ban smartphones in schools – that suggests the ban resulted in more sociable, better focused students and improved academic performance. (Positive News)
📌Community noticeboard
🎨 The Grange Park toilets are opening tomorrow, this Saturday, 12th July!
Do spread the word to prove that these facilities are needed. For the launch, there is free painting session happening. we’re creating an artwork to cover the toilets with artist Olivia da Costa. Children and adults welcome between 12-5pm, particularly at 3pm. Click here to let the organisers now that you are planning to attend. Contact Michael.Stuart6@gmail.com to volunteer on the day to help supervise etc.
🌳Trees for Cities will be running a Family Tree Walk from Longstone Avenue Open Space, Chadwick Road, London NW10 4XH on Wednesday 16th July 2025 from 3.45pm to 5.00pm.
Sign up here.
