This update is brought to you by Nicola Hogan, King’s Sustainability Manager for Operations.
Tree planting
30 trees were planted at the New Malden sports ground in early November. The trees were donated by the Woodlands Trust via Students for Trees, who are supported by SOS-UK.
The team, some of whom are part of King’s Community Gardens, planted native woodland trees (saplings) that included crab apple, rowan and hazel – ideal for New Malden’s urban environment. Additional planting is scheduled for March of 2022 so be sure to sign up with the King’s Community Gardens if you would like to get involved. A tree survey on 157 trees across the estate was also recently carried out and found that 82 trees need work but none required felling.
Bike parking
Stamford Street Apartments and Great Dover Street Apartments are planning to increase the number of bike parking, starting in January 2022.
SSA is scheduled to have 40 new semi-vertical bike racks installed increasing their parking by 8 and GDSA are planning to expand their bike parking spaces from 14 to 20.
Denmark Hill has already expanded its bike parking spaces to 146, up from 78 spaces across two buildings, bringing their total number of bike parking spaces to 272. They have also installed a bike repair stand at each of their 4-bike storage locations. The total number of bike parking spaces at King’s is now 1179.
Biodiversity
The biodiversity action plan of 2018/2019, which had been put on hold due to COVID restrictions, has restarted. Recent activity has increased the number of completed actions from 5% in April of 2020 to 8% by the end of the 2020/21 year. The Weston Education Centre’s (WEC) rear garden has been re-turfed and plans are to include more flowers where practicable.
