It was a delight to welcome Chattanooga’s Mayor Tim Kelly on a visit to London this Tuesday (August 13th 2024).
Chattanooga is on track to become the US’s first National Park City, and Mayor Kelly was keen to connect with the London National Park City team and see successful greening projects first hand during his vacation in the capital.
National Park City’s Executive Director Mark Cridge organised an insightful afternoon programme that kicked off with a visit to City Hall and a meeting with the newly appointed Deputy Mayor of London for the Environment and Energy, Mete Coban MBE.
Coban discussed the importance of looking at “how we connect communities to nature” as well as “access to green spaces”, a sentiment shared by Kelly as he seeks to make the fourth-largest city in Tennessee a place where people and nature are part of the same thriving ecosystem.
Set against the backdrop of waterfront developments in the Royal Victoria/Custom House area – which Kelly outlined were similar in vision to regeneration plans along Chattanooga’s stretch of the Tennessee River – it was the ideal location to reflect on both the past, present and future for two burgeoning cities.
Beckton Meadows: Biodiversity in Action
In true London fashion Mayor Kelly, Deputy Mayor Coban, GLA reps and the London National Park City team hopped a few stops on the DLR to visit Beckton Meadows – home to two acres of resident-planted wildflowers and grasses, a Butterfly Garden and the new Queen Elizabeth Memorial Pathway – the latter designed by East Architecture – and part of the wider Beckton Parks Master Plan.
Here they were met by a number of representatives from the London Borough of Newham including Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, James Asser MP, West Ham and Beckton, London Assembly Member Unmesh Desai, Cllr Miraj Patel, London Borough of Newham, along with Anna Yusuf, Project lead for Beckton Parks and Louise Wilcox from the London Borough of Newham.
This was in addition to London National Park City Rangers Katie Blake and Matt Ponting, who have both played hands-on roles in supporting the evolution of Beckton Meadows and who Yusuf noted added another valuable “layer of expertise and vision”.
Reflecting on the significance of the project, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said:
“It’s really important in the context of the borough where it has been a neighbourhood and communities that have been left behind because of the economic consequences of the docks and containerisation. Since 2018 as part of our bold, radical place vision we’ve begun looking at the whole of the borough, rather than looking at designated parts. So Beckton Parks and Beckton Meadows and everything that entails and its link to a just transition and inclusive growth is really fundamental and it’s really symbolic of what we intend to do as we come into subsequent phases.”
And in a nod to the involvement of over 1,500 residents in the consultation and creation of Beckton Meadows she added:
“Co-production and co-design is hard-wired into everything we do as a council.”
Touring the Meadows there was an opportunity to look at work that had been created in consultation with the Butterfly Conservation Trust and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust – including an area that created an ideal habitat for ground-nesting bees – as well as three standout deadwood sculptures that provide points of interest and place to relax, reflect and take an all important nature selfie. This was in addition to a play trail with accompanying benches, offering ‘play on the way’ for families walking through the parks.
A visit to remember
On his visit Mayor Kelly said: “What you’ve done here in London is not only a great inspiration for me and my city but to the rest of the world. And with any luck at all we’ll be joining the ranks as a National Park City. Again it changes the way that residents think about their relationship to nature and their relationship to each other and it’s such a powerful concept once you turn that lightbulb on.
“We’re working on similar projects in Chattanooga thanks to the generosity of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and it’s good to see we’re on the right track. We have a grant for three years for some work at the intersection of equity and sustainability and we’ve got a lot of grand plans for our parks and programmes to connect disadvantaged neighbourhoods with more vested areas.”
He closed with an open invitation for attendees to visit Chattanooga and see the city’s progress in action.
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