Air Quality & Active Travel + Green Spaces & Food Growing
“I want to learn more about climate-related issues for my children”
Poplar Green Futures hosted the first of the three thematic workshops within the neighbourhood of Poplar, at the Teviot Centre. The first workshop was about exploring the themes of ‘Air Quality & Travel’ and ‘Green Spaces & Food Growing’.
Introductions
Once everyone had arrived, Mara from Shared Futures CIC led us through a round of introductions as we sat in a circle, where we had the opportunity to explain what had brought us to the workshop. As we went around, we put little flags on a large map of the neighbourhood to show where we live or which part of Poplar is important to us. Overall the group consisted of a good mix of people, ranging from younger to older participants and people who were born in Poplar, and some who had moved to the area more recently. All of whom had their own unique view of the neighbourhood.
“New developments have really reduced green spaces. I want to know how we can improve the area.”
One participant explained “I want to learn more about climate-related issues for my children. My kids talk a lot about climate change and so I want to learn more about the terminology etc. to also be able to teach them.” A female participant who teaches cycling also added “In London cycling is dangerous. With global warming, I reckon it will get even worse as people will want to use their cars [it is cooler with air con rather than cycling] but that means there will be even more cars on the road. I have also done a course in beekeeping and really want to get into gardening, particularly to save the bees”.
Following the introductions, Lorenza from URBED accompanied by Felicity from Poplar HARCA gave a presentation, starting with an introduction of the Poplar Green Futures project and its programme. Felicity then described some of the projects that are already taking place within Poplar in relation to the key themes such as the Chrisp Street Cycles project. Finally, Lorenza shared information on what work had been done to date on the project and the key findings from baseline research on the key themes within Poplar.
Mapping Exercise
After getting inspired by the presentation, for our first exercise, we broke out into smaller facilitated groups, where we discussed and mapped some of the issues and challenges faced around the themes within the neighbourhood. Followed by a discussion around places of interest and the things that people enjoy. The conversations were really engaging and lively, we couldn’t capture the discussions on post-it notes quick enough!
Within one of the groups, there was a general agreement that one of the big issues within the neighbourhood is air and noise pollution from the A12 and the construction sites of new developments. They also shared their frustration for the lack of opportunities for food growing either at their homes or within the neighbourhood.
Another group felt that there were many barriers to walking with few points of crossing over the A12 and A13. The group also highlighted how much they value many green spaces from the bigger packs such as Victoria Park and Bartlett Park and even the smallest of pocket parks. Walking routes such as along the River Lea and particularly the Limehouse Cut canal were highly valued by many of the workshop participants.
Bee-keeping at the Teviot Centre
Much to our surprise, in the garden of the Teviot Centre, we found some urban bee-keeping taking place. A couple of the bee-keepers from Leaders in Community (LiC) talked to us about beekeeping and its wide array of benefits and showed us one of the hives. They run a successful bee-keeping course that is centred around increasing and having a positive impact on the bee population and environmental sustainability. The group had many questions for the bee-keepers and they were really inspired by their work.
Our trip to R-Urban
After a short break, the group went on a sunny walk for a visit to R-Urban – a project working towards a local, sustainable energy model, collectively managed by community members, providing opportunities for training and employment. R-Urban provides workshops, events, and space for green experimentation for solutions to London’s biggest environmental challenges, such as poor air quality and waste management.
“Great initiative. If they would do food waste collections from roads around, that would be great”
When we arrived at R-Urban, we were met by Katrina, who had done a great job in making the mobile garden look super green, by filling the garden with various vegetables and fruits. Katrina went on to tell us all about the workshop, kitchen, anaerobic digester, tool library, and mobile garden. The group was particularly fascinated by the anaerobic digester and food composting (the theme of composting and waste will also feed into the following workshop’s theme of Resources & Waste Reduction) – we had many questions and some participants even wanted to find out ways in which they could get involved.
Park Walkabout
After a fantastic learning experience at R-Urban, the group started walking back towards the Teviot Centre, where we stopped at Wyvis Green (behind the centre). The group was invited to mark down their observations of the park, thinking about things like air and noise pollution, litter, the facilities, traffic and parking, and so on. Once we came back inside the centre, we discussed some of the findings.
[The park is] “a good size, good variety, and different areas to add interest. Lots of overlooking bins on surrounding streets ruin the look though“
This activity allowed the participants to imagine how different areas of the neighbourhood could be improved, which would lead to more ideas in the afternoon activity.
Exploring Ideas
Following a well-deserved lunch break, we re-grouped into two groups, exploring projects already happening within the neighbourhood and further out from other parts of London and the UK.
Ideas started to flow and the participants started to map what already is happening within the neighbourhood, what was thought to be missing, and other ideas that could be developed. Everyone was eager to get those little flags pinned to the maps! The ideas were diverse ranging from suggestions for more electric vehicle charging points, to making roads safer for walking and cycling, and providing more spaces for food growing throughout the neighbourhood.
The day ended with everyone feeling inspired and there was great enthusiasm for the upcoming second workshop which will cover the themes of ‘Homes & Energy’ and ‘Resources & Waste Reduction’.