An Environment is the place and surroundings of where Animals, People, and Plants live. Brent is an Environment for people. Our Habitats concern buildings and houses. Brent is not a natural landscape, it is man made and maintained. But there are still a lot of Environmental problems in Brent.
Visual Pollution: Visual Pollution occurs quite frequently in Brent. Vandalism and Graffiti are some common forms, but visual pollution is also caused from the lack of maintenance of buildings. This is a serious problem because it gives Brent a less appealing image.
Waste: Waste is another serious problem, many people litter on the streets but there are also some examples of potential recreational area’s being used up by people dumping everyday household waste. Things such as TV’s, sofa’s, tables even weekly rubbish bags.
Traffic: Traffic is a problem all over London, but in Brent, People tend to use the North Circular quite often to get place to place. Many people in Brent have an occupation based outside Brent; this causes the use of roads more often. There are also poor Traffic diversion route’s available to divert extra traffic from Wembley Arena or Wembley Stadium.
Air Pollution: This problem is world wide due to the fact that we use energy made from substance’s which damage our environment. Brent has large Industrial Estate’s and lots of Factories, this produces a lot of air pollution.
Post War Development in Brent is one of the sources of the environmental problems it is now facing.
Industry
Many Traditional Industries were put out of business as warehousing grew along the North Circular. This has caused dereliction of old factories leading to vandalism and Visual Pollution. It also increased Air Pollution and Traffic on the North Circular.
Wembley Stadium/ Conference Centre became the centre of Wembley, which contributed to the local economy. This lead to Increased Traffic along the Wembley High Road, and Empire way.
Transport
Post War Development changed transport a big deal. More private cars were being used which resulted in more roads being built and older roads being widened. Footpaths were closed or blocked and this gave less accessibility to pedestrians. Open natural spaces were destroyed to make this extra ‘room’ for more roads like Drury Way in Neasden.
Railways were being used much more often due to growing networks. This caused expansion in rail tracks, which once again takes up natural spaces. Noise and Visual Pollution increased. Graffiti, Vandalism and loud trains are the environment at Wembley Central Station at rush hour.
Direct access to the North Circular and links to the major motorways like the M25, M1, and M40, this encourages the use of car’s. This causes air pollution and more traffic.
Shopping
Large Self Service shops and shopping centre’s grew while smaller specialist shops were put out of business. This takes up a lot of natural land and causes traffic on nearby roads. For instance Brent
Brent is known as the Most Multi-Racial district in the country, this encourages many different religions and beliefs to settle in one place. Brent has many religions; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism etc. Each religion has specific teaching and moral responsibilities towards the environment.
Christian’s and Jews believe that to destroy the environment it is a crime against god. They also believe that man was created to look after the world.
Hindu’s believe the same but they also believe in taking care of animals, plants, mountains and rivers. By doing this Hindu’s create an environmental awareness.
Muslims believe that they are on earth as stewards of god and that earth is not theirs to do what they want with it, they are only there to look after it.
Brent has a number of policies dealing with its environmental problems. I am going research two of them to find out if these policies are working, or if they need to be seriously re-considered.
I plan to do this by asking members of the public around the Neasden area if they recycle in the form of a questionnaire.
When collecting my primary data I aim to find out:
- The number of people that are informed about nearby recycling centre’s
- If Brent is successfully advertising various recycling methods
- The amount of Vehicles that are surveyed and compare it to the amount of pedestrians to find a ratio.
After I have collected my Primary Data I will be comparing it to Brents Local agenda 21 and The Unitary Development Plan, to see if these plans and agreements are running successfully or if they need to be improved.
I will do this on various roads such as St Raphaels way, Lewis Crescent, Etc. I will also ask around St Raphaels council estate to see if there are any differences in information given on recycling.
Here is a copy of the questionnaire I will be using in my investigation.
My Name is Shabaz Sayed. I go to Copland Community School where I am investigating if Brent is dealing adequately with its waste and traffic problems.
What is your Age? 10-16 17-25 26-35 35+
Gender? Male Female
Do You Recycle? Yes No
If yes how often All the time Sometimes Whenever I Can
Do you know of any recycling centres around your area? Yes No
If yes do you use them? Yes No
Do you use the Green boxes provided by the council? Yes No Sometimes
Do you have a car? Yes No
How often do you use your car? Always Sometimes Never
How many Drivers are there in your household? 1 2 3 3+
I will compare the Primary Data I have collected to the LA21 and UDP.
LA21 (Local Agenda 21)
In response to concerns about the envionment, The united nations held a conference on environment development in Rio De Janiero in 1992. This was called the “Earth Summit” which resulted in over 150 nations agreeing to a international plan of action top protect the environment and to maintain a level of sustainable development.
Britain was one of the countries that agreed to this plan and therefore it was decided that each local council should help by implementing there own LA21.
Some of the policies in the Local Agenda 21 is to encourage public transport. For example Trains, Underground, Bus, Cycle. Brents target is to increase the average distance walked per person by 5% every 5 years. At the moment 48% of people drive cars were only 24% use the Underground or Busses. Brent also plans to increase car sharing.
There are also Policies in LA21 for Waste/Recycling. Brent wants to increase the % of waste recycled in a household to 20%. They also plan to increase the % of people who compost there waste.
UDP (Unitary Developed Plan)
Under the Town and Country Planning act 1990