National Park City

London National Park City campaignhttp://www.nationalparkcity.london/
How we can make London a National Park City.

It's a pleasure to write and update you on the progress of our movement.

The crowdfunded proposal for a Greater London National Park City was published in July. It's purpose was to help us recruit more support and gain political traction. It sets out how London can become a National Park City once two-thirds of London's 654 electoral wards and the Mayor of London have declared their support.

The good news is that we are doing incredibly well.

• 69 wards across 20 boroughs have already declared their support. This is 16% of our target in just four months. 
• Key mayoral candidates are backing the initiative. Zac Goldsmith MP (Conservative) helped to crowdfund the proposal and Sadiq Khan MP (Labour), Sian Berry (Green) and Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat) have all publicly given their support. 

With the London mayoral elections in May, the aim is to have the political legitimacy needed to make London a National Park City by summer 2016. After further consultation, planning, formation and development in 2017, it is possible that the London National Park City could be launched in 2018... but there is still a long way to go.

Please help to make the campaign a success by doing one or more of these things: 
Ask an organisation to declare its support - Know the leader of a small or large organisation? Ask them to back London to be a National Park City! The more community groups, charities and businesses that join us the stronger our initiative will be.  
Help to amplify the campaign - Ask your communications team to share our effort to make London a National Park City. Our new social media team loves chatting to people and organisations, so share your news, photos, opinions or questions using #NationalParkCity. Find us on Twitter (@LondonNPC), Facebook and now Instagram too. Do tweet why you support London to be a #NationalParkCity and we'll retweet. 
Live or work in London? Recruit the support of a ward - Emailing councillors and asking for their support is working. Copy, paste, adapt and send this template email to the councillors of a London ward to help recruit its support.  -http://www.nationalparkcity.london/recruit_your_wardYou may be able to think of other actions or resources that you or your organisation can use to help grow the movement and push the campaign forward. If you have any specific ideas or would like to collaborate in some way please do contact me directly. 

The next public campaign meeting is on December 1 in central London. You can register for this meeting here.http://www.nationalparkcity.london/events

Thank you very much for all your continued support. Together we can make London a National Park City. Let's make it happen!

Warm wishes,

Daniel 

Daniel Raven-Ellison
@DanRavenEllison

Recruit your ward

London can become a National Park City once 436 wards and the Mayor of London have declared their support. So far 69 wards have declared their support. You can see a list and map of declared wards here - http://www.nationalparkcity.london/ward_support
You can help to make London a National Park City by asking a ward's councillors to declare its support. So far we have had a very positive response by sending a friendly and positive email to councillors. A single email can make a big difference to this campaign - so please do send a message. 

We have had a very good response from the email below. Please feel free to copy, paste and adapt this. We have highlighted bold sections that you will need to adapt. A personal message is best, so do let the councillors know how you are connected to their ward and why you care about it. 

---

Dear 

I hope that this email finds you all well.

I live in [ward name] and [add something personal and positive. What do you love/enjoy about your ward?].

You may already be aware of the campaign to make London the world's first National Park City. I’m supporting the initiative as one of its core aims is to connect 100% of London’s children to nature.

The full proposal can be read here. http://www.nationalparkcity.london/proposal

An independent poll has revealed that 8 in 10 Londoners think that this is something London councils should support. The initiative has also had unanimous cross-party support from the London Assembly.

A community-led initiative, a Greater London National Park City would be privately and commercially funded. No public sector funding is needed - and so it will not cost the council anything. No planning powers are being asked for either. What is needed is your political support. 

There is no precedent for making a National Park City - London will be the first. For London to become a National Park City two-thirds (436 of 654) of London's electoral wards and the Mayor of London must to declare their support. 69 wards across 20 boroughs have already declared their support. 

It would be wonderful to be able to add our ward to the growing list of declared wards - and get behind this important campaign. All that is needed is for the three of you to declare our ward's support. You can see which wards have already declared here.- http://www.nationalparkcity.london/ward_support
Can we please declare our ward’s support for this great initiative? All you need to do is email hello@nationalparkcity.org with your support. 

Thank you very much for your time.