Protecting nature for the benefit of people and planet

Nature and Green Space

Hackney’s green spaces are precious and I recognise how important our parks, marshes and rivers are for our wellbeing and recreation.

Green spaces help the climate. Bio matter absorbs carbon. Trees, plants and animals thrive in green spaces, helping to cool the city in increasingly hot weather. Over the pandemic, many residents realised how vital our local green spaces are for our physical and mental wellbeing. Green spaces connect communities. They are a vital resource for communal activities including community food growing.

Working for you

As councillors, Alastair Binnie-Lubbock and I have:

Monitored street tree vandalism.
Questioned the Council on the number of trees felled on its estates.
Supported the successful saving of a mature tree on Bayston Road in Stoke Newington.
Secured a database of Hackney trees on a public website.

To protect green spaces and respond to the ecological emergency

I commit to:

Not build on any green space and work with neighbouring boroughs to limit building that impacts our green space and wildlife such as around Hackney Marshes
Limit human access to green space which is already being built on, such as the marshes, to minimise the impact on wildlife
Protect mature trees; recognising their contribution to hosting wildlife, people’s health and wellbeing and for carbon sequestration.
Doing all I can to protect biodiversity including establishing a Biodiversity Officer, joining up green spaces across the borough, increasing the number of growing boxes and managing green space in an environmentally friendly way – limiting machine use and stopping all glyphosate use
Supporting the Ecoschools programme.