In case you have not seen it, the Council are inviting comments on their new Local Plan - needed to support recovery from Covid-19, to deal with the housing challenge, and to respond to the climate emergency, amongst other issues. Here is the summary document.
There is a lovely early 20th century picture of the Wood Green Forge, which was at Spouter's Corner, alias Hollywood Green, on the Hornsey Historical Society website. It had apparently been there (in some form) since the late 18th century! Find out more on this from Hornsey Historical Society, which incidentally celebrates its 50th anniversary this year:
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Haringey's New Local Plan and Commonplace consultations show no awareness of the urgency of the climate crisis and the radical steps that need to be taken to re-shape our roads into car-free zones with active travellers, pedal-powered buses, delivery services like PedalMe, bus gates, LTNs, solar-powered parks and buildings, plastic-waste free shops and clean air.
There has been no emergency action programme since Haringey declared a Climate Emergency in March 2019.
Just endless 'consultations'.
As if we could negotiate with the climate crisis.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/economics-of-bi...
FROM TIM ROOT, MUSWELL HILL FRIENDS OF THE EARTH:
Please find about 10-20 minutes before the 1 February deadline to comment on Haringey Council’s new Local Plan:
https://haringeynewlocalplan.commonplace.is/overview
The plan will set the overall framework to decide planning applications. One of the reasons the council gives for drawing up a new plan now is to respond to the climate emergency, so our involvement will be valuable. Much of the consultation is tick boxes, but there are also plenty of chances to go into more detail if you wish.
The section on the Climate emergency has a question in which one of the answers you are invited to tick is “Raise the minimum 35% reduction ”. This refers to the current London Plan, which requires all major developments to have a minimum 35% CO2 emissions saving above Part L of the 2013 building regulations. Raising this minimum is a very good idea.
The same question invites you to tick “Raise the cost of offsetting emissions .” This refers to the levy a developer has to pay the council if they successfully argue that it Is not feasible to achieve a sufficiently low level of emissions in the planned building. It is important to raise this cost so architects and developers adjust their practice to design buildings which can achieve a low level of CO2 emissions.
Offsetting is just a con. It is always feasible to achieve a sufficiently low level of emissions in any planned building. Zero carbon houses and 'passive' buildings have been constructed for years if not decades.
No offsetting, no short cuts.