Yes, please: Batteries, solar panels, hedgehogs and BESS. No, thank you: Heathrow, plants flowering earlier. Unsure: Parakeets
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Occasionally, you glimpse the future in the news of the week. Here are a few examples from the last seven days.
Climate
Kew research shows climate change shifting plant flowering
The Times (££ paywall) reported on an extraordinary project at Kew Gardens:
Over the past four years, researchers at Kew have photographed every one of their 7.4 million plant and fungi samples, creating a digital archive that AI programmes can sift for scientific discoveries.
One early insight?
Climate change is shifting plants’ flowering patterns by 2.5 days per decade.
Why this matters:
A world-class and world-renowned research centre is just around the corner. We should not letfamiliarity to breed forgetfulness
Climate change, the organising challenge for Barnes2050, is already changing the natural world. That is at the heart of Kew’s work. They are watching closely. We should too.
Housing
More good news about smarter homes
Another useful - and inspiring - case study from Richmond council explains how solar power is now helping to run a family home in the borough. James explains how he paid only 70p for electricity in one week in May.
Richmond Council has also published a useful guide on adapting your home.
Were you to upgrade your home, you would be in a good company. The Times reports,
The number of household batteries being installed has nearly doubled year-on-year.
As the newspaper explains,
By combining a home battery with a time-of-use tariff from their energy supplier, homeowners can cut their electricity bills. Households can charge their batteries overnight at extremely cheap rates (about 7p per kWh) and use that stored energy during the day to avoid peak rates (about 28p per kWh).
The UK is now second only to Germany for residential battery installations.
Plug-in solar may soon follow. An independent safety review commissioned by the UK government concluded that plug-in solar panels could be used safely. Retailers including Currys, B&Q, Amazon, Screwfix and Asda have met ministers to discuss their possible rollout. The Times reports,
Depending on the size of the system, they can supply between 5 and 25 per cent of a home’s electricity needs.
There’s speculation plug-in batteries could follow soon.
Why this matters:
Barnes2050 has identified the risk that energy retrofits becomes a social divider, especially somewhere like Barnes
Cheap, modular batteries and solar panels should help reduce this risk.
One of those nagging questions
Why did Paris build apartments and London built terraced houses?
An answer.
Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking: how do we make sure Barnes - the place and its people - is thriving and climate-ready by 2050?
Transport
£9m for borough-wide road and pavement repairs
Richmond borough is rolling out its largest ever programme of resurfacing and maintenance works. More than £9m will be spent across the borough, prioritising streets identified as being in the poorest condition.
The Barnes roads scheduled for improvement include, Arundel Terrace, Verdun Road, the High Street (A3003), The Terrace (A3003) and Stanton Road.
Whither London Heathrow Airport
The UK’s Government has published its plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. According to Chancellor Rachel Reeves,
It would support over 60,000 good local jobs and deliver up to £42 billion in benefits to the UK,’
Richmond council’s leader, Gareth Roberts remains opposed. He says expansion would mean
.. more noise, more pollution and more disruption for communities already affected by the airport.
Why it matters:
Barnes2050 has kept clear of this topic until now. Odd, in some ways. First time visitors to the area always remark on the flights overhead
With the plans published, there is no excuse. These flights - no matter how high - impact life in Barnes
Guiding principle here is to weigh net impact. There will be more on this but for now the headlines will suffice. We need to weigh the economic and social impact of the new runway with the environmental cost.
This is not easy.
The airport’s privately-funded expansion will give businesses better connectivity to overseas markets, support trade, boost inbound tourism, and drive growth and job creation up and down the country.
Then Department for Transport analysis appears to weaken that claim.
The economic boost from a Heathrow third runway could be a tiny fraction of previous estimates, government analysis shows, while the overall trade-off from the bigger airport could set the UK back by as much as £62.5bn.
Meanwhile, the case for green flight remains unproven, especially for long haul. This is not about creating zero-carbon flights, still less net-zero flights. Flying may well justify some part of our global carbon budget. But there needs to be much more progress before that argument feels settled.
For now, Barnes2050 is against this expansion.
Zero emissions buses
You wait for one ..
London now has one of the largest zero-emission bus fleets in Europe. 3,000 and counting.
London Assembly investigating robotaxis
Driverless taxis present a ‘huge opportunity’ to connect parts of outer London, a senior Assembly Member has said – but only if the rollout does not lead to further congestion.
So reported the Evening Standard.
The Assembley Transport Committee has been advised to look to Oslo for lessons on how to launch autonomous vehicles in a European city.
Infrastructure
Richmond council shares £1.5m plan to reshape town centre
The plan includes a new public square at Whittaker Square and Avenue, more greenery and seating, and space for small events and markets. MyLondon reports the plan would reduce parking to create a pedestrian‑friendly area.
Why this matters:
Credit Richmond council for commmissioning meaningful research and then using it to propose change
Credit the councl too for another major investment in the area. This and the Twickenham Riverside show that local government can be active custodians of place, at scale
And credit for the direction, or rather, type of travel. The council are designing this part of the borough around people, not cars
Hammersmith Bridge .. the play
OSO Arts Centre have lined up a treat in September.
‘Hammersmith Bridge is Falling Down’ described as a political drama, will run from 05-11 September.
How tempting must it have been to stage it outdoors.
You know where.
Tickets are not yet available.
Nature
Have your say on the Barn Elms Southside
This is another Community BlueScapes initiative. Such an impressive project.
The team wants your view on the Barn Elms Southside, known as BESS, which would reconnect the Beverley Brook to its historic floodplain at Barn Elms in Barnes
By restoring the river’s connection with its floodplain, the project will create additional space for water during extreme weather and help reduce flood risk in surrounding areas.
Caption - BESS in Barnes. Credit - Community BlueScapes
The area was a natural floodplain but engineering last century reduced its effectiveness. The project plans to restore the historic connection between the Brook and the floodplain. Southside would remain open except when it floods, doing what floodplains are meant to do: taking water, slowing it down and helping to protect Barnes.
Brilliant.
There’s a short survey at the foot of this page.
Please provide your support for this latest impressive example of nature as infrustructure or Natural Flood Management.
Parakeets documentary
To close a Channel 4 documentary about these stunning birds.
At first glance the topic is simple - love ‘em or loathe ‘em.
Not so quick, says Chris Packham.
'This is the story of the most astonishing and destructive thing never to happen to London'
London very nearly remade itself around the car. Not in the casual, incremental way we know today, but through a vast, engineered web of elevated motorways slicing across neighbourhoods from Barnes to Bow. It sounds outlandish. It was very nearly real.