Rennes delegation meets committed Londoners

In September, London has become the “class room” for a delegation of 45 people from Rennes City and the Agglomeration Rennes Métropole. During two days, the elected membres and public servants have very vividly exchanged experiences with representatives from the London Boroughs of Sutton and Southwark.

Members of Energie-Cités respectively since 1999 and 2007, the London Boroughs of Southwark and Sutton are engaged in very ambitious paths towards an attractive and sustainable future of their communities.

This study tour was thus a good opportunity for all participants to exchange on some of the most important present key projects leading to the set targets. It covered, among others, visits of the sustainable district of BedZED, a walk through the new Civic Offices of Southwark and the highly energy-efficient London City Hall designed by Norman Foster.

Thanks to a well balanced mix of presentations, discussions and technical visits, the participants discovered how Sutton is implementing its "Smarter Travel Sutton" (STS) campaign. “This is actually the biggest mobility campaign carried out within the Greater London. Sutton has been chosen as a pilot Borough by the transport company TfL (Transport for London)”, said Daniel Johnson, Integrated Programmes Manager at TfL and enthousiastic membre of the STS team!

How a close dialogue with citizens can be highly efficient and successful, has been explained by representatives from the Sutton Environmental Sustainability Department. The presentations by Chris Reid, Executive Head, Katherine Hudson and Katrina LLoyd made the Rennes delegation familiar with the "One planet living concept in Sutton" and the local project "Climate Challenge".

On Friday morning, the group was welcomed at the Southwark’s new civic headquarters by Councillor Jeffrey Hook, in charge of environment and transport and Bob Fiddik, responsible for energy and climate strategy at the Borough. The morning presentations focused on the Elephant and Castle regeneration program of Southwark, one of the largest schemes of its kind to be undertaken in Europe with "a zero carbon growth objective", said Tony Moseley, Assistant Director Infrastructure and Sustainability of the project.

As in Sutton, Southwark’s key to success could be resumed in one word: partnership! Indeed, here and there, nothing would be possible without existing strong local partnerships like the Southwark Alliance, made up of agencies and individuals who are responsible for giving the borough a sustainable community strategy.
In the same spirit but at the Greater London scale, Dr Ute Collier explained how the London Energy Partnership provides co-ordination and synergy between the many groups, organisations and networks working on energy issues in line with the London Plan, the city’s Spatial Development Strategy.

On the other side, the representatives from London listened with curiosity and thirst for knowledge to the presentations by Jean-Yves Chapuis, Rennes Métropole Vice-President delegate of urban forms and Bernard Poirier, Vice-President delegate of prospective and sustainable development. Both provided a very interesting input on the "Archipelago city", the so-called Rennes conurbation development scheme. Rennes delegation at BedZED

Discussions and networking between London and Rennes could have continued, if only the two days would not have passed by so quickly…