Urban sustainability UK news

• London’s low-traffic zones ‘cut deaths and injuries by more than a third’, theguardian.com (Jul 07, 2025) — “LTNs have led to considerable reductions in road traffic injuries inside their boundaries for all road users – from pedestrians and cyclists to drivers. At the same time, concerns about nearby main roads becoming more dangerous aren’t supported by the evidence.” Dr Jamie Furlong
• How to protect your favourite urban trees from increasing danger, theconversation.com (Jun 23, 2025)
• Coin Street: How co-op ownership can keep the bulldozer at bay, thenews.coop (Apr 07, 2025)
• Work on £1.5m city centre revamp to start in April, BBC News (Mar 11, 2025) — Work to transform an area of Canterbury to reduce the use of cars locally will start next month
• Frome residents win five-year battle for community-led housing project, theguardian.com (Jan 23, 2025) — “What’s really exciting for me is that it’s not actually about the amount of commercial space or the affordable housing it will provide – it’s about the sense of confidence and agency and possibility that I think it will give us as a community.” Fiona Barrows, Frome town councillor

• London’s new urban greening structure is a ‘garden for insects and people’, positive.news (Sep 17, 2024)
• ‘Building something better’: the UK residents retrofitting their homes amid the climate crisis, theguardian.com (Aug 03, 2024) — From weekly skills-sharing to rewilding streets, communities are working to improve the planet while bolstering the health of people

• High-street regeneration has to start with community trust and care, theconversation.com (Nov 21, 2023)
• Revealed: the UK’s ‘best’ new buildings, positive.news (Oct 23, 2023)
• ‘I call it botanarchy’: The Hackney guerrilla gardener bringing power to the people, theguardian.com (Sep 28, 2023)
• Back to the stone age: the sustainable building material we’ve all been waiting for…, theguardian.com (Aug 06, 2023)
• Have you liberated your garden from the tyranny of tarmac?, positive.news (Jul 31, 2023)

• Saving the high street: three ways community businesses can kickstart a revival, The Conversation (Aug 25, 2022)
• Hot cities and cool wetlands, wwt.org.uk (Aug 03, 2022)
• When Edinburgh's Canongate community resisted a crass urban development, they deployed a "working-class cosmopolitanism", The Daily Alternative (Jul 28, 2022)
• Commonwealth Games 2022: how Birmingham is becoming the UK’s most liveable city, The Conversation (Jul 28, 2022)

• Community, community, community: WHO IS IT FOR? Apr 29, 2021...^[1]

Involving people in planning will help us build a better city, Claire Harding, Mar 2, 2021...^[2]

• 2025 vision for George Street unveiled, Feb 24, 2021...^[3]
• Waltham Forest building a 15-minute borough, Dec 21, 2021...^[4]
• So you want to set up a low-traffic neighbourhood? Here's where to start. Nov 29, 2021...^[5]
• London hospital trust to pay £250k to install LTN for public health benefits, Nov 17, 2021...^[6]
• Reconciling the '20-minute neighbourhood' Nov 16, 2021...^[7]
• Bristol reveals plans to pedestrianise historic centre in Covid-19 revamp, May 21, 2021...^[8]
• How a Belgian port city (Ghent) inspired Birmingham's car-free ambitions, Jan 20, 2021...^[9]

References

• York to ban private car journeys from city centre within three years, Dec 31, 2019...^[1]
• Net zero carbon neighbourhood to be built in south Wales, Dec 23, 2019...^[2]

Bristol council votes to ban diesel cars in first for a UK city, Nov 5, 2019...^[3]

• Community parklets: Locals invited to apply as council reopens trial programme,Aug 7...^[4]

Plymouth becomes the UK's first Fab City, Jul 1^[5]

• Marmalade Lane: the car-free, triple-glazed, 42-house oasis, May 8...^[6]
• Urban co-design for better wellbeing and health: Healthy New Town, Jan 9^[7]
• Cars, lorries and taxis to be banned from Tottenham Court Road, Jan 4...^[8]

References

• Timpson says a locally-driven approach needed to rejuvenate high streets. Retail industry experts have called for a community-focused approach to tackling the challenges facing high streets and town centres. Dec 20^[1]

The government-appointed panel made up representatives from the retail, property and design sectors has published practical recommendations to reinvigorate town centres by creating a community hub which, alongside retail, includes leisure and social services and more residential property.

The report puts community involvement and local leadership at the centre of a plan to create the town centres of the future.

• Create Streets say: We don't want NIMBYs, but YIMBYs and BIMBYs (Y for "Yes", B for "Beautiful"), Oct 15^[2]
• Government faces court action over 'illegal' planning policy, Sep 4^[3]

This disastrous new project will change the face of Britain, yet no debate is allowed, George Monbiot, Aug 22...^[4]

• Government commits to further support for neighbourhood planning, Mar 19^[5]
• We could build more than a million homes on brownfield land… so why aren't we? Feb 28...^[6]
• People-powered housing: is it the answer to our housing crisis? Feb 23^[7]

References

• Community group builds plans for genuinely affordable housing, Nov 2, 2017...^[1]
• Funding of around £5.5 million per year until 2022, to provide communities with specialist support to help develop a Neighbourhood Plan, Sep 20, 2017...^[2]
• Borough Market to phase out plastic bottle sales with free fountains, Aug 23, 2017...^[3]
• The @MayorofLondon is aiming to make London one of the greenest cities on Earth, Aug 21, 2017...^[4]
• Are you currently preparing a neighbourhood plan? Could community-led housing meet the needs of your area? Jul 24, 2017...^[5]

References

Putting people in control of public land, Nov 2^[1]

• Peers vote for new neighbourhood right of appeal, Apr 22^[2]
• Neighbourhood Planning and Transition initiatives: an update. February 5^[3]

Community-led housing: top of the agenda! Jan 20^[4]

References

• It's in all our interests to know who owns our land, and who benefits from it, September 28^[1]
• Charity Sustrans unveil new modular street furniture system, September 21^[2]
• Five Radical Ideas for a Better Planning System, April^[3]
• Atmos Totnes and the Power to Convene, January 22

References

• Our month on rethinking real estate: Why I'm proud to be a SWIMBY, October 2, 2014.

Why I'm not a planner, nor proud of planning, May 23, 2014...^[1]

A Right to Build: Local homes for local people, March 14, 2013...^[2]

• New alliance calls for "Smart Growth" investment in cities, not more 1980s-style sprawl, February 21, 2013...^[3]

References