A Greener Kensington and Chelsea
We want to deliver greener neighbourhoods, cleaner air, and healthier lives for everyone who lives here. Parks and open spaces and well-maintained streets are valued by our residents and are important to everyone’s quality of life. That means preserving and enhancing the borough’s neighbourhoods, green spaces, and exceptionally clean streets.
Air pollution in Kensington and Chelsea has reduced by half over the last 15 years. Reducing emissions from vehicles and buildings is an important part of achieving better air quality. The Council has supported more electric vehicle chargers than almost anywhere else in the country. Making our own buildings greener and supporting others to do so is at the forefront of our approach. We have invested £8 million into our schools to make them more energy efficient, all our council homes greener, and work is underway on the Lancaster West Estate to make it carbon neutral by 2030.
We are committed to helping our community become more environmentally conscious and supporting the borough to reach the national net zero targets. To do this, we will promote and encourage environmentally friendly practices and work with local businesses and residents to support them to make sustainable decisions. By helping others take this action, we can help Kensington and Chelsea become a greener borough for everyone.
Parks and open spaces
We will:
- Continue to invest in and maintain our parks, promoting biodiversity and well-being. Including delivering a new interim open space and sports area (subject to land agreements) at Cremorne Wharf, Chelsea Riverside.
- Ensure Landowners at Kensal and Earl’s Court prioritise green spaces in their plans and encourage landowners to include new parks in masterplans.
- Continue to improve public squares and spaces, with investment in the public realm at Lots Road, Portobello Road, Bute Street and Cremorne Wharf. Alongside small local improvements in every ward over the next four years.
Clean air and clean streets
We will:
- Aim to have the cleanest, best maintained streets in London. This includes removing litter, dog mess and autumn leaves promptly; regularly emptying the 500 litter bins we provide across the borough; and ensuring any offensive graffiti and large fly tips are investigated and removed within 24 hours where possible.
- Maintain twice weekly bin collections and begin rolling out electric vehicles to collect waste.
- Increase recycling rates and introduce food waste collections.
- Improve biodiversity and protect and enhance habitats across the borough, including planting wildflower meadows in our parks and expanding our Bee superhighway.
- Plant 400 new trees across the borough to enhance our streets, estates, and green spaces.
Greening
We will:
- Continue to improve air quality in Kensington and Chelsea by encouraging electric cars, walking, and cycling, and use of public transport.
- Lead the transition to net zero by making council-owned buildings like our homes and estates, schools, and offices energy efficient.
- Make it easier for people to make green changes to their own homes, through solar panels, double glazing and heat pumps.
- Work with businesses and the institutions in South Kensington to make the area a low carbon neighbourhood.
- Green all our Council homes with double glazing and other measures and ensure any new Council homes are built to green standards.
- Work with local people to transform Notting Dale ward into an eco-neighbourhood by 2030, upskilling local people to secure green jobs and provide renewable energy for residents’ homes, and we are working with residents on the Lancaster West Estate to retrofit homes to help make the estate carbon neutral by 2030.
