I have spent almost two decades in Local and City Government, most notably as London Borough of Hackney Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste, Transport, and Public Realm. In this role, I designed and delivered the largest urban tree planting programme in the UK, the country’s largest number of Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods and School Streets, eliminated 6,000 tonnes of black bag waste from incineration annually through residual waste restriction, installed the largest number of drinking water fountains in the U.K, delivered the first estate-based reversed vending machine, brought the first local authority-hosted Library of things to Dalston, vetoed non-European export of recyclates from North London Waste Authority boroughs as Chair of Members’ Recycling Working Group, and established Hackney Light & Power, the borough’s first publicly owned energy generation company in over a century.

Prior to my time as a Hackney Cabinet Member, I spent almost a decade at the Greater London Authority advising Assembly Members on urban policy.

My work on municipal decarbonisation has been covered extensively in the national press, for whom I have authored articles on surface transport, green infrastructure, and energy policy.

I am a regular speaker at conferences and events on decarbonisation. Most recently, I have participated in the Climate Change Advisory Group’s public broadcast on carbon sequestration; presented at the Expert Workshop for the Commission on Creating Healthy Cities, Kellog College, University of Oxford; was a guest speaker alongside Lord Blunkett at the launch of The Politics of Street Trees (Routledge, 2022); panellist at the Town and Country Planning Association’s A New Era for Green Infrastructure? Conference; presented to the Scottish Minister for Active Travel at Transport Scotland’s Active Travel Transformation Workshop; and most recently presented on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to students and academics at the The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London.

I am also a former Trustee of CPRE London, a Create Streets Research Fellow, co-authoring Greening Up (2023), and an advisor to Climate Emergency U.K, most recently having co-authored Climate Emergency U.K’s Scorecard Successes (2024).

Selection of Publications

March 2024 – Contributor and introduction co-author: Scorecards Successes: What factors enable climate action within U.K local authorities, Climate Emergency U.K

September 2023 – Contributor/editor: Greening Up. From fights to rights: making it the default to re-green our streets and squares, Create Streets

November 2022 – Rishi Sunak says he wants to make the UK a ‘clean energy superpower’. His record suggests otherwise, Big Issue

September 2022 – ‘London’s mayor talks the talk on climate. Pity he doesn’t walk the walk’, Architects’ Journal

August 2022 – We can make our streets greener, happier, and safer. This is how, Big Issue

July 2022 – 40C heatwaves are now reality. It’s time to transform our cities, Big Issue

June 2022 – Greening the city needs to happen – why are the police standing in the way? Architects’ Journal

November 2021 – Where is Government support for pesticide-free towns and cities? Pesticide Action Network

February 2021 – There is no ‘war on cars’ in London, but perhaps it is time for one, London Society

November 2020 – You Have No ‘Right’ To Drive a Car through Our Neighbourhoods, Even If It’s Electric, Huffington Post