Speaking Notes: Matthew Pencharz, Environment & Political Advisor to the Mayor of
London
How the London Health and Environment Committee works
6th March, 13:15 – 16:15pm
 I would like to echo Victoria’s welcome to you all today at City Hall. It is great to see so many of you here.
 You’ve heard about from the Assembly side of the GLA. Its job is to scrutinise the Mayor, asking challenging questions to make sure that people like me are delivering the best possible for Londoners.
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Whereas I am on the executive side of the GLA, appointed by the Mayor to advise him on the environment.
 I lead a number of officials here in delivering the Mayor’s vision that London’s rapid development should be sustainable, maintaining our enviable quality of life and working to retrofit our older infrastructure. In short that we lengthen
London’s lead as the world’s best big city.
 And as you’ve heard, the Mayor is committed to volunteering and help communities take control themselves and build their own future.
 We are building on the successes of the Mayor’s first term and know that these programmes are not just about improvements made on the ground, but also the way they interact and involve communities.
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And wherever possible we have tried to build in volunteering and community involvement.
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That is where you are all involved we want to hear and learn from your experiences so we can continue to build our programmes.
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Let me share with you some of our successes.
 Litter remains an issue and is always high up the list of Londoners’ concerns.
That is why the Mayor is working hard to support communities to take ownership. Since taking the lead of Capital Clean-up in 2011 the Mayor has helped to champion over 1000 clean-up events, mobilise over 6000 volunteers to collect thousands of bags of litter, remove hundreds of meters of graffiti, and foster a sense of community spirit London wide.
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We continue to build upon this project and in January we have invited
London’s community groups, schools, SMEs, and charities to apply for a
Capital Clean-up grant to help them spruce up some rundown land, littered waterways or unloved green spaces.
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In January Capital Clean-up applicants could apply for cash grants to the value of £500 - £2000 or for a clean-up kit which would provide budding clean-up enthusiasts with all the necessary tools to get started.
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Our Help a London Park programme brought significant investment into a number of London parks, reinvigorating them for people to enjoy, providing relief from the bustle of the city and a safe place for children to play. Many of

these schemes boast examples of good community involvement throughout their development.
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Building upon this success our pocket park programme recognises the important role that communities and volunteers play in this space by inviting them to apply directly for funding. I think that this is an important step in empowering local communities to make a difference in their area.
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Many of you will already be familiar with the Mayor’s Street Tree programme and the Re:Leaf partnership .
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The GLA has, and continues, to fund a number of community led tree planting opportunities. Since 2011, when the RE:LEAF programme was launched, over 10,000 volunteers have been engaged, enabling the planting of over
100,000 trees.
 An example is “ Londoners Love Trees ”. This programme engaged communities in tree planting, and trained up volunteers to become local tree wardens for their upkeep and safeguarding. Over 4,000 volunteers were engaged in one year and it resulted in the planting of 10,000 trees.
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We have just had 12 months of what has felt like incessant rain and have moved rapidly from what was becoming a serious drought with the implementation of some very draconian drought orders, to almost the wettest year on record.
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And that rain caused misery for many people up and down the country –
London was lucky, none of the heaviest storms hit us and the impact not as severe as, for example, Newcastle.
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But as the climate changes, these extreme weather events will become more frequent and we have to ensure the capital is more resilient.
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Our Drain London programme has been working with communities since 2010 to help build resilience to flooding. The community flood plan programme brings together the local community with representatives from the boroughs,
Environment Agency, emergency services and water companies.
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We support the community to understand flood risk, including the locations which might flood, the reasons for the flood, and what actions can be taken to reduce potential severity of the flood and any associated damage and distress.
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The plan is very much owned by the community and through the process they talk to the emergency service responders: so that everyone understands the help and support that is available. The process of producing a Community
Flood Plan will also create a dialogue on flooding with organisations – potentially strengthening the voice of the community on these issues.
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Volunteers are already active in Purley, Brackley Square in Redbridge, Herne
Hill and Wells Way (Camberwell) to help friends and neighbours prepare for flooding. Each community group has designed their own approach.
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As you can see volunteering and community involvement is an important strand to the M ayor’s environment programme. These programmes are not

perfect
– they never are, but I am listening and will continue to listen to your ideas as we continue to develop our programme.