Romford Road stretches from Stratford to Little Ilford - a key route for motor vehicles it also provides important west-east links for walking and cycling.
In 2022, we launched Romford Road Active Travel Scheme to improve walking and cycling routes along Romford Road and to local destinations such as shops, schools and green spaces.
A key component has been the planting of rain gardens and new trees, to improve air quality, capture water runoff, sustain pollinators, such as bees and butterflies providing additional biodiversity and new habitats, plus improving the way locals view the street.
After we implemented the first phase of the Scheme, members of the Fire Brigade on Romford Road reached out to the Council to express immense gratitude along with compliments for the impact that this has made on what they described as “a very depressing stretch of road” and wanted to get involved to extend the scheme.
With the help of some donated plants from Meristem Design, Cesare Cardia, one of the council’s Senior Landscape Architects, and Mark Richardson from the London Fire Brigade worked with others to bring to life a small community project, which has even ended up with us featuring on the popular BBC Radio 4 Gardener’s Question Time, to be broadcast later in the year.
“Working together with the Fire Service and the Community we’ve made even more of a difference to the area and extended the scheme with community and Fire Service help at minimal extra cost”, said Cesare.
