Boris launches environment manifesto

These are the highlights of Boris Johnson's environment manifesto, launched today:

"1. Protect And Preserve Open Spaces

• Use the Mayor's powers to protect the green belt and protect against development on gardens
• Invest £6 million in making our open spaces cleaner and safer.
• Invest in 10,000 street trees to improve the local neighbourhoods that need them most.

2. Make It Easier To Recycle And Reduce Waste

• Promote innovative new schemes that pay Londoners to recycle.
• Work closely with boroughs to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, and support a ban on plastic bags.

3. Make Transport More Sustainable

• Oppose the third runway at Heathrow and mixed mode operation.
• Promote hybrid buses and get traffic moving more smoothly to reduce congestion and so reduce emissions.
• Make London a genuinely cycle-friendly city to promote modal shift.

4. Help Tackle Climate Change

• Work to help cut London's carbon emissions by 60% from their 1990 levels by 2025, through promoting greater energy efficiency and cutting congestion
• Work with the boroughs to encourage Londoners to install insulation in return for Council Tax rebates.
• Champion innovation through an annual Mayor's prize of £20,000 for the best new ideas for low carbon technology from London's students."

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Comments

[Conservative Homer]

I like the idea of more trees. Leafy areas are usually heavily forested, particularly to the South West of London. Planting lots of trees (a lot more than 10000) would make east london especially look a lot more astetically pleasing (and hopefully make the many unattractive blocks of flats built during the last ten years less overbearing from street level.) There seems to be a current trend among architects to exile trees from public spaces (ie, millenium dome, Olympic village) creating vast swathes of vacant featureless and windswept public areas.

Id also like to see plentiful free parking available at outer London mass transport hubs to encourage integrated transport (unfortunate term, i know)

Not a fan of the greenbelt personally, and theres tons of fairly unattractive undeveloped land off to the east of London that could relieve the chronic housing situation, so less keen on that policy.

[Tom FD]

I was particularly impressed with the way Boris linked Ken's propaganda newsletter into environment policy - all this completely shows the Greens up as idiots.

[powellite]

I know that Heathrow expansion is hardly popular, but who else has stood for Mayor of a global city on a ticket which would reduce it's international competitiveness and leak business to its continental rivals? Not to mention condemn its air travellers to more delays and chaos when travelling?

[Baskerville]

Heathrow is a logistical nightmare that will only be made worse by a third runway. Key decisions have been put off for too long.
In the short to medium term (i.e. the same timescale as Heathrow's 3rd runway), let's have another runway - or even two - and enhanced rail link for Gatwick.
Long term, let's all get behind an all-singing, all-dancing offshore aiport in the Thames Estuary with fast rail links into the city.

[cjcjc]

"but who else has stood for Mayor of a global city on a ticket which would reduce it's international competitiveness and leak business to its continental rivals?"

All candidates are opposing the expansion of course.

Leaking what business?
Transfer passengers - so what?

London is already bursting at the seams.
And who cares about "global city" status if that means shit transportation and lunatic real estate prices?

[cjcjc]

(And I speak as the owner of a central London house who walks everywhere!)

[Josh]

Opposing the third runway doesn't bother me much. Opposing mixed mode on the other hand does. Mixed mode, combined with the current movement constraint, would be an excellent way to increase runway ullage and reduce the frequency and severity of the typical Chaos at Heathrow(TM) events, without actually meaning growth in activity at the airport.

Then I remember that Boris has already resurrected the idea of Heathrow-in-Sea, which is a much cooler idea so I'll forgive him. He at least is proposing an alternative rather than saying "So what?" to the problem of London air traffic.

[NuContrick]

He also said that if there were two candidates for a job, one white and one black and they were both equally qualified then he would prefer to give it to the black person. So one PC idiot out and another one in then

[Serf]

Long term, let's all get behind an all-singing, all-dancing offshore aiport in the Thames Estuary with fast rail links into the city.

Owned by anyone other than BAA

[John F Aberdeen]

Very good idea Serf about the offshore airport. Speaking as an oil industry man who commutes regularly from Aberdeen to overseas locations, all of us oilfield people (and there are thousands of us) stopped using Thiefrow decades ago in favour of Schipol.
Boris,s idea for a new airport is a good one and no to BAA and their glorified Nissan hut buildings and chaos (see T 5 today).
Instead contract the new airport out to the companies who run Singapore, Hong Kong or Schipol airports,, because these airports are smart, well orginised, laid back, attractive, easy to use and a pleasure to travel through.
I know it might sound like a Scotsman interfering in London matters, however, writing as a long time Conservative, nothing would do my heart more good than to see Boris being elected as Mayor and giving Brown, Livingstone, and the rest of the socialist cabal a good hiding,,, because Boris wins in May,, next time its DC and the Tory party when Bottler calls an election.

[Not Boris]

More green nonsense! This manifesto reads like politically correct screed from Greenpeace.

Recycling wastes more energy than it saves. World paper prices are rock bottom. How is ban on plastic going to enforced? Green fascism strikes again!

This has been the coldest global winter for many years. It is time to expose the great global warming swindle as a big lie.

This is not Boris's campaign. It is Steve Hilton's. Boris has just lost my vote. I thought that he was supposed to be libertarian rather than a stooge for the enviro-Nazis.

[Jim Carr]

Will politicians like Boris Johnson never learn?
You CANNOT "tackle climate change".
The human race did not cause climate change, and so is powerless to influence it one way or the other.
The man on the Clapham omnibus already knows this.
The only ones who don't, apparently, are the trough-snouter politicos (including the UN IPCC) and the lunatic green fringe (including scientist-apologists).
Boris, if you want to make yourself appear doltish, keep banging on about "tackling climate change".

[powellite]

I'm with you Baskerville. Thames Estuary is the only long-term answer - in the meantime, something must be doen about Heathrow.

The question is, though, would Boris/whoever was in position as Mayor have the power to sanction it?

cjcjc @ 14:13 - I don't understand your point about **** transportation - the point is that London's status is threatened because it has bad transportation - that's why Heathrow etc needs to be sorted out, isn't it....?