Promoting cycling and walking

1. Unlike most other major European cities London has little provision for cyclists and pedestrians. I will:

2. Ensure the completion of the London cycle network and create more dedicated cycle lanes.

3. Ensure priority for pedestrians and cyclists at junctions.

4. Support the World Squares scheme proposals to pedestrianise parts of Trafalgar and Parliament squares.

5. Protect and enhance green spaces so that at the end of my first term of office Londoners can walk across the city, north to south and east to west on green pedestrian routes.

1. A pro-cycling policy could make a vast contribution to London's environmental welfare 
2. but cycle routes should be for leisure or they should go directly from an origin to destination. Few routes in the London Cycle Network do either.
3. cycle priority at junctions is good - if and when it promotes speed and safety for cyclists
4. cycle lanes are desirable only if they give cyclists a faster and/or safer journey. Far too many of the London cycle lanes built in the last decade do not do this
5. support for the network of strategic walking network is welcome

London: A sustainable world city

Londonís future must be clean and green. Our economic future as well as the quality of our lives depend on leading the way as a sustainable world city. As Mayor, I will:

1. Put the environment at the heart of London government and provide for comprehensive environmental assessment and monitoring of all strategies which the Mayor is required to produce.

2. Introduce a Quality of Life index for London, adapted to the cityís specific needs, including measures of crime, health, air and water quality, road traffic levels, access to green space, and re-use of polluted and derelict land.

3. Provide much better information to Londoners on the state of the environment and progress towards targets for improvements through london.mayor.com and other means.

1. But sustainability policies need to be specific. We have heard too much waffle and seen too little action. From a landscape point of view the key policies are:
2. London needs a Surface Water Strategy should be detained, infiltrated and transpired near to where it falls, using ponds, swales and vegetated roofs 
3. London needs an Earthmoving Strategy, to manage the materials arising from demolition and excavation
4. London needs a River Reclamation Strategy, to win back the Lost Rivers of London
5. London needs a Vegetation Management Strategy, to reduce the acres of empty green desert.

Green Space 

We must learn to value the rich natural heritage of London. Its parks, green spaces and rivers are home to a great diversity of wildlife and plants. Access to green spaces brings health and educational benefits to Londonís children and makes London a greener and more pleasant city in which to live and work. As Mayor I will:

1. Include in Londonís transport strategy the development of green pedestrian routes for Londoners to walk across the city, north to south, east to west.

2. Draw up a "Biodiversity Action Plan" to give full protection to Londonís wildlife sites.

3. Begin by intervening to try to save Rainham Marshes from ugly and destructive development plans.

1. The statement in favour of green space could have been made at any time in the past 2 centuries but it is a very good idea to associate the policy with transport planning
2. As noted above, support for a London Walkway Network is most welcome. Some routes will serve commuting and leisure functions but their requirements are different and many routes should be designed for either commuter or weekend travel.
3. OK to biodiversity, but what London needs most is a greater area of semi-natural habitat space
4. With good landscape planning, Rainham could have some development and more-valuable marshland.
5. London open space planning should be re-focussed on the concept of multi-purpose greenways.

The River Thames

The River Thames is Londonís most important and visible natural asset. The Thames provides a wide range of habitats including shingle, mudflats and grazing marshes, and is home to more than 350 invertebrate species and 115 different species of fish. The Thames and its tributaries, such as the rivers Come, Wandle and Lee, link London to the surrounding countryside and provide a network of green corridors through urban areas. It is also an important but under-used transport artery for people and goods. As Mayor I will:

ï Designate the Thames a special Blue Ribbon Zone with its protection an integral part of the Spatial Development Strategy and the other strategies which I will be required to develop as Mayor.

Ken Livingstone deserves the post of London's first elected Mayor for his recognition that the River Thames is open space. It has been excluded from the reckoning in ALL London's official open space strategies of the late-unlamented twentieth century.

But if the Thames is to be a Blue Ribbon it needs a budget and a landscape planning board with power to comment on decisions by planning authorities and by the Port of London Authority.