Morning:
20°c
Boris Johnson and George Osborne warned the Government that London’s future as an international financial centre was in danger from new EU red tape
More...
Mayor's freesheet axed in favour of trees
Katharine Barney, City Hall Reporter13.05.08
The Londoner, the Mayor's free newspaper, is to be scrapped and some of the money saved used to plant 10,000 trees across the capital, Boris Johnson announced today.
He unveiled the move as a delivery on two more of his election promises - making London greener and cutting the Mayor's publicity budget - adding that the street trees will improve residential areas. The planting programme will be directed at deprived neighbourhoods.
Mr Johnson's staff claim that Londoners would have spent around £2.9 million on The Londoner this year if Ken Livingstone had been re-elected.
But by using some of the money saved from the Mayor's personal newspaper - about £1 million per year - London's most deprived areas should see the extra 10,000 trees by 2012.
Mr Johnson said: "There was little commitment of resources from Ken Livingstone to reverse the trend of decline in the number of street trees.
"I am taking immediate action to reverse this short-sighted decision. In the last few years a third of boroughs have seen a decline in the number of street trees. Many London streets, particularly in deprived areas, have no street trees at all.
"So today I have taken the decision to cut unnecessary funding of the Mayor's personal publicity budget to plant 10,000 street trees by the end of my first term."
The Londoner, distributed to three million homes across London, was described by critics as "propaganda".
Mr Johnson announced the scheme at a tree planting scheme in Brixton. He was joined by the chief executive of Trees for Cities, Graham Simmonds.
The Mayor planted a tree and also presented local primary school children with badges to mark their involvement in this local project. He has said he will work in partnership with charities such as Trees for Cities and the London boroughs to deliver his pledge.
It is thought the charities will compile a list of the 40 areas that would most benefit from street trees. On average, 250 trees will be planted in each of these areas and all 40 areas will have trees planted by the end of the mayoral term.
Londoners will be able to vote on which of the areas should have trees planted first on the GLA website.
Reader views (26)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Excellent decision by Boris. Love trees, hate propaganda - oh and while he's at it, how about getting rid of all that surplus signage Ken erected. The signs saying "low emission zone here" and "congestion charge x miles ahead etc." which even found their way to the Midlands - and the posters. And how about culling all the surplus signage that now overwhelms the motorist. In fact how about a total rethink - why do we need parking meters? Why do we need parking wardens? Why do we need so many sleeping policeman? Bring on the trees.
- Watervole, Twickenham
@ Val in Spain!
What's the weather like in your little tax haven then?
Typical New Labour! Sniping from abroad - come back here and pay your bloody taxes like the rest of us; then you can pontificate about 'life in London'
- Silent Hunter, UK
Must agree with Val Daniels the low life in London will most probably use those tree branches as spears.
The Morons would never know that trees are the lungs of the planet.
- Ben Goody, London
Boris has a lot of money, and so do all MPs and ministers, but my local borough has decimated my local areas by cutting down trees so it won't get sued by accident/personal injury lawyers and of course not pay for real gardeners. The Hawthorne bushes give birds life, and regardless of what an MP gets 50% of sparrows in UK are gone, so thank you Boris for choosing nature over propaganda!
- Anon, Hairngey
Of course he had to get rid of the Londoner, so he could justify the £250,000 he will be getting from the Daily Telegraph to write a weekly article to let Londoners know what's going on. Nice one, Boris. That's another job you've got to go with the Mayoralty, MP for Henley, Chairing the Police Committee and the Transport Committee. I'm surprised you've got the time to do it all. Never mind about 3 Jags Prescott, now it's 5 Jobs Johnson! For those who voted for this man, you should have been careful what you wished for, now you've got it, with bells on!
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa. Spain
Good for Boz! The only thing is that kids in 'deprived areas'(in most areas come to that) aren't too good at respect -- when it comes to trees. So without 'educashion' on how to regard these living things, watch out for most of them to be snapped in half as saplings, just for fun!
- Judith C, London
Well he can't go far wrong with policies like these. The Londoner was excruciating reading - or rather flicking through the cliches and propaganda before condemning to the recycle bin - whose loss will only be felt by the puppet journos trotting out Ken's self-aggrandising tripe.
- Squiz, Islington
Hooray! Now let's get rid of the other free rags which cause so much litter, especially those left by lazy people on the tube who don't seem to understand what a litter bin is.
- L Wheatley, London, England
Having never received the London paper (except on one occasion when Ken was coming up for re-election) but paid for it out of my rip-off taxes I'm glad to see the back of it. It was a pure propaganda sheet for Ken and a sheer abuse of power.
- Saint Gordo, Westmonster
It was propaganda; it was just a paper full of articles extolling the virtues of comrade Ken, produced at our expense. Good job it's been axed - now what about all the other cuts Boris?
- Londongenie, London
Marvellous. Everyone can enjoy trees. Only Kenneth Livingstone disciples enjoyed his propaganda.
- Annabelle, london
The closure of The Londoner is no loss. We used to put it into the bin straight away. I hope that the other free newspapers are also scrapped.
- Stephen Jacques, London
Never knew that I had to pay for that rag. Nor for Ken's sandwiches. Good riddance to all three.
- Robert Zimmerman, London
That rag was nothing but an advert for the Mayor. There are enough London papers as it is, and they all seem to have a keen interest in what the Mayor is getting up to.
Let the free press do the job and spend our tax money where it is needed.
- Tim, London
So how do councils outside London differ with their freesheets?
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Muildenhall, Suffolk
Well makes a change to cutting them down. Certainly re planting is a good move, problem is ensuring they don't get damaged by vandals. Time to create local 'tree watches' or plant near CCTVs!
- Tony, London E11
Well done now get rid of the other papers that are left on tubes and buses every night what a waste they are.
- Dave, Croydon
If you're incapable of doing anything useful then you don't need to report it. Maybe he can write his successes on the back of a tin of caviare.
- Dave Spart, London
Good - receiving the unsolicited Red Ken freesheet certainly seemed at odds with being green!
- Diana, London
I received the Londoner a couple of times. What a total waste of money and effort, not to mention trees.
I suspect most copies ended up, unread, at the bottom of cat litter trays/budgie cages across the capital.
It's like a weight is slowly being lifted as the new London administration chokes off Ken's profligacy and wasteful vanity projects.
Nice one, Boris.
- Mark, London
Yet again a fantastic policy from Boris!
This is what Londoners want and I am so glad to see that Boris is working hard to reverse the horrendous damage done to London by that scumbag Livingstone!
Planting trees is a real, practical solution to making London cleaner and greener - Trees remove huge amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, as well as making the city more peaceful and attractive.
Ken and Nu-Labour take note - relentlessly punishing people with draconian "green" taxes is utterly vindictive and totally useless - you crooks should learn from Boris.
- Daniel Howard, London,UK
Great stuff. Keep it up Boris!
- Lb, London
"Mr Johnson's staff claim that Londoners would have spent around £2.9 million on The Londoner this year if Ken Livingstone had been re-elected.
But by using some of the money saved from the Mayor's personal newspaper - about £1 million per year - London's most deprived areas should see the extra 10,000 trees by 2012."
So what will he do with the remaining £1.9 million?
- Dan, London
A lot of people think the Londoner was propaganda, which is presumably why so many people exercised their democratic right and voted the previous incumbent out of office.
The Londoner was very poor value for money and that includes the whole management production team who were grossly overpaid.
Good riddance to the whole thing and roll on more trees (that of course the local council will pollard at the earliest opportunity).
- Giles Pepperell, Streatham Vale, London
Good job Boris an about time too!
- Albert Hall, kettering
"propaganda"? That's rich!
- Fresh, London
