forgiveness is sexy

People have been riding London to Dunwich on the July Saturday nearest the full moon since 1993. Legend has it that a few half-civilised City couriers just headed east after work one balmy Friday evening…
… and kept going till they hit the sea. Splash.

On July 28th, there’s 15th annual Dunwich Dynamo Bicycle Ride - starting in London and ending at sunrise in Dunwich on the Suffolk coast.

It’s not a race and all abilities are welcome. It’s also free, though getting back to London by train or their organised bus isn’t.

The catch is – it’s 120 miles (the average speed is 12 mph).

If you’re interested, see http://www.southwarkcyclists.org.uk/social/dunwichfaqs07.shtml

London’s suburbs have been struggling to adapt to significant challenges that are changing the face of suburbia as we know it, according to a report from the London Assembly.

Suburbs are home to nearly two-thirds of Londoners, but while “the city” has been treated to an urban renaissance, suburbs are struggling. The report, Semi-detached: reconnecting London’s suburbs, reveals that suburbs are in danger of becoming dormitories that are too dependent on private car use and lacking the local jobs, amenities, community assets and open space that once made them so desirable.

The Mayor has set ambitious targets for each borough to increase housing stock over the next ten years, and almost half of all new housing in London will be built in the suburbs up until 2016. Yet his London Plan forecasts a loss of employment in the suburbs as jobs go to the centre of London or the town centres beyond the M25.

The report identifies a need for the Mayor and boroughs to do more to boost employment, increase investment in public transport and amenities, and manage the balance between housing growth and the suburban environment many Londoners value.

Tony Arbour, Chairman of L.A’s Planning and Spatial Development Committee, said:

Places in their own right make up suburban London and need to retain the character that attracted people there in the first place. We need to reconnect homes with local jobs, unite communities with community assets, and strike the right balance between housing and green space.

Without this reconnection, the future for even more Londoners will be a long commute on an overcrowded train, or a trip in the car just to get to a shop. Our report demonstrates that there is more to London than the City and West End and that the suburbs are just as important to the capital.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly will launch a new practical guide today that shows how housing organisations can make a huge difference to local people’s lives by improving the neighbourhoods in which they live.

Successful Neighbourhoods: A Good Practice Guide, published by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the Housing Corporation with the support of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), will be launched at the CIH Annual Conference and Exhibition in Harrogate.

Ruth Kelly said: This new guide brings together some of the best examples of what has been achieved by housing organisations working with local people and empowering them to change the neighbourhood they live in for the better. This is important work. We must work closely at all levels of individual neighbourhoods to ensure that no-one is disadvantaged by where they live.

Successes highlighted in the guide include cutting crime and anti-social behaviour, improving access to health care, boosting employment opportunities and driving up the overall economic opportunities of local people.

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