Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How much of London is green space?
London is made of 40% public green space, including 3,000 parks and totaling 35,000 acres.
Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22.4% coverage compared to a national average of 11.8% and as such is one of the few counties not to recommend new woodlands in the subordinate planning authorities' plans. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of natural woodland in the UK, one of the oldest in Europe. Surrey also contains England's principal concentration of lowland heath, on sandy soils in the west of the county.
Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way, a scenic long-distance path. Accordingly, Surrey provides many rural and semi-rural leisure activities, with a large horse population in modern terms.
Guildford is the county town, where Surrey County Council has never sat, based in London at Newington (Southwark), Lambeth, and finally today Kingston upon Thames, since 1965 within Greater London — it is outside its administrative area . The county has the highest proportion of woodland in England, being a rump (residual) county reduced by successive territory losses to London. Inhabited by about 1.1 million people, Surrey is the third-most-populous county of the nine in the South East, under the region's official definition which excludes Essex and other counties usually, colloquially, considered to be in the South East of England.
The civil parish of Woolwich, roughly the area of the present-day wards Woolwich Riverside and Woolwich Common, was formerly known as Woolwich Saint Mary. Until 1842, when the Old Town Hall was built, the vestry met in a room in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene. Woolwich became part of the London metropolitan area in the mid-19th century, although was officially still in Kent at the time. In 1889, with the formation of London County Council, Woolwich became officially part of London. In 1900 the parishes of Woolwich, Eltham and Plumstead formed the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. In 1906 the new Woolwich Town Hall was inaugurated. In April 1965, following implementation of the London Government Act 1963, Woolwich was merged into the London Borough of Greenwich, since 2012 the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The administrative buildings of the borough are in Woolwich.
The Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor (formerly the Oxford-Cambridge Arc) is a notional arc of agricultural and urban land at about 80 km (about 50 miles) radius of London, in south central England. It runs between the two English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge via Milton Keynes and other settlements in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, at the northern rim of the London commuter belt. It is significant only in economic geography, with little physical geography in common.
Milton Keynes is a purpose-built, 'new city' in South East England. It is located about 45 miles (75 km) north west of London and approximately midway between Oxford and Cambridge. With other towns it forms the unitary authority of the Borough of Milton Keynes.
The 2001 UK Census revealed that the borough had a population of 263,464 – of whom 127,806 were male, and 135,658 female. Of those stating a choice, 47.71% described themselves as Christian, 17.71% as Hindu, 12.26% as Muslim and 10% as having no religion. Of the population, 39.96% were in full-time employment and 7.86% in part-time employment – compared to a London average of 42.64% and 8.62%, respectively. Residents were predominantly owner-occupiers, with 23.17% owning their house outright, and a further 31.33% owning with a mortgage. 10.59% were in local authority housing, with a further 13.29% renting from a housing association, or other registered social landlord.
There are many accents traditionally associated with London. The most well known of the London accents long ago acquired the Cockney label from London's East End, which is heard both in London itself, and across the wider South East England region more generally. The accent of a 21st-century Londoner varies widely; what is becoming more and more common amongst the under-30s however is some fusion of Cockney with a whole array of ethnic accents, in particular Caribbean, which form an accent labelled Multicultural London English (MLE). The other widely heard and spoken accent is RP (Received Pronunciation) in various forms, which can often be heard in the media and many of other traditional professions and beyond, although this accent is not limited to London and South East England, and can also be heard selectively throughout the whole UK amongst certain social groupings. Since the turn of the century the Cockney dialect is less common in the East End and has 'migrated' east to Havering and the county of Essex.
South East England and the Home Counties (the counties bordering London) tend to reflect the interface between the London region and other regional accents. Affluent districts are associated with a modified Received Pronunciation (RP) accent, reflecting their traditional popularity with upper middle and upper-class residents which has spread throughout more social classes broadly in rural areas with commuting access to London. Less affluent areas have traditionally mainstream London accents (that is, variants of the Estuary English accent) that grade into southern rural outside urban areas.
On 23 January 1967, when the formal new town designation order was made, the area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages. The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge, with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right. Planning control was taken from elected local authorities and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC). Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: doing so has exposed a rich history of human settlement since Neolithic times and has provided a unique insight into the history of a large sample of the landscape of North Buckinghamshire.
Air pollution in Los Angeles has caused widespread concerns. In 2011, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Survey on Californians and the Environment showed that 45% of citizens in Los Angeles consider air pollution to be a “big problem”, and 47% believe that the air quality of Los Angeles is worse than it was 10 years ago. The most recent PPIC Survey of 2018 showed that the strong majority of California adults (72%) and likely voters favor the new state law mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and 56% of adults support the state's cap-and-trade program. In addition, about half of Californians believe state climate policies will lead to more jobs, while the other half expects the price of gasoline to rise. In 2013, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside area ranked as the 1st most ozone-polluted city, the 4th most polluted city by annual particle pollution, and the 4th most polluted city by 24-hour particle pollution.
Lisbon has 552,700 inhabitants within the administrative center on the area of only 100.05 km Administratively defined cities that exist in the vicinity of the capital are in fact part of the metropolitan perimeter of Lisbon. The urban area has a population of 2,666,000 inhabitants, being the eleventh largest urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Ruhr area, Madrid, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin, Rome, Naples and Athens. The whole metropolis of Lisbon (metropolitan area) has about 3 million inhabitants. According to official government data, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area has 3,121,876 inhabitants. Other sources also show a similar number, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – 2,797,612 inhabitants; according to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations – 2,890,000; according to the European Statistical Office Eurostat – 2,839,908; according to the Brookings Institution has 2,968,600 inhabitants.
The Emirates Stadium (known as Ashburton Grove prior to sponsorship, and as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England, and the home of Arsenal F.C.. With a capacity of 60,260 it is the third-largest football stadium in England after Wembley Stadium and Old Trafford.
Although the exact boundaries of any conurbation are open to debate, dependent on what criteria are used to determine where an urban area ceases, the Office for National Statistics defines the West Midlands Built Up Area as including the urban areas of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Solihull, West Bromwich, Dudley, and Walsall amongst others. These settlements are not coterminous with the Metropolitan Boroughs of the same name.
The journey to London Victoria from West Dulwich takes about 12 minutes and there are direct trains to and from London Blackfriars and points north on the Thameslink line during the morning and evening peak periods respectively, East Dulwich is 12 minutes from London Bridge and North Dulwich is 14 minutes from London Bridge. The nearest stations are in: Denmark Hill, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, North Dulwich, Gipsy Hill, Herne Hill, Peckham Rye, Sydenham Hill and Tulse Hill.
Greenaway was one of the composers commissioned to write music for the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012 in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The piece, entitled "The New Water Music", was inspired by the George Frederic Handel's Water Music and contained movements by several modern British composers working under the direction of Greenaway. After the pageant, Greenaway was critical of the BBC coverage of the pageant as the live broadcast did not feature the performance at all. In his personal blog, he expressed the view that the presenters had focused on interviewing celebrities while ignoring the musicians completely.
Typical travel times in minutes by road "(peak times in italics)" are: central London 75 "(110)", Birmingham 45 "(60)", Manchester 120 "(175)", Leicester 50 "(65)", Oxford 50 "(60)", Cambridge 85 "(130)", Milton Keynes 20 "(30)". Travel times (peak) by rail (from April 2008) by West Midlands Trains - as well as Virgin Trains services in minutes are: from Northampton to Central London (Euston) 55, to Birmingham 65; from Milton Keynes to Central London 40 and Manchester 120. Airports at Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted as well as Birmingham Airport, Luton and East Midlands are all within easy reach. The village has bus services to Northampton, Towcester and Milton Keynes, though this is poor on Sundays and weekday evenings.
The largest Irish communities in Britain are located predominantly in the cities and towns: in London, in particular Kilburn (which has one of the largest Irish-born communities outside Ireland) out to the west and north west of the city, in the large port cities such as Liverpool (which elected the first Irish Nationalist members of parliament), Glasgow, Bristol, Sunderland and Portsmouth. Big industrial cities such as Salford, Manchester, Luton, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Cardiff and parts of Newcastle and Nottingham also have large diaspora populations due to the Industrial Revolution and, in the case of the first three, the strength of the motor industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Crosby, Kirkby, Rugby, Denbigh, Widnes, Ilfracombe, Bootle, Huyton, Birkenhead, Gateshead, Seaham, Middlesbrough, Wallasey, Moreton, Batley, Bolton, Barrhead, Winsford, Ellesmere Port, Chester, Blantyre, Runcorn, Ashton-under-Lyne, Heywood, Consett, Bishop Auckland, Cambuslang, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Solihull, Brighouse, Clydebank, Easington Colliery, Litherland, Whitehaven, Barrow-in-Furness, Irlam, Newton Mearns, Chatham, Greenock, Port Glasgow, Prestwich, Holyhead, Fishguard, Caistor, Saltney, Cleator Moor, Newport, Maghull, Washington, North Shields, South Shields, Tynemouth, Paisley, Stockport, Haslingden, Dewsbury, Skelmersdale, Keighley, Chorley and parts of Market Harborough, Devon and Greater Manchester have high concentrations of Irish communities. The towns of Hebburn, Jarrow and Coatbridge have famously all earned the nickname 'Little Ireland' due to their high Irish populations.
English football has a league system which incorporates thousands of clubs, and is topped by four fully professional divisions. The elite Premier League has 20 teams and is the richest football league in the world. The other three fully professional divisions are the run by the English Football League, the oldest league in the world, and include another 72 clubs. Annual promotion and relegation operates between these four divisions and also between the lowest of them and lower level or "non-League" football. There are a small number of fully professional clubs outside the top four divisions, and many more semi-professional clubs. Thus England has over a hundred fully professional clubs in total, which is considerably more than any other country in Europe.
The English football league system includes hundreds of interlinked leagues, consisting of thousands of divisions. The Premier League is at the top, followed by The Football League and then the Football Conference, where the structure starts to become regional and includes the Northern Premier League, the Southern League, the Isthmian League and many more besides. The Welsh clubs of Cardiff City, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport County, Swansea City and Wrexham play in the English system. Chester City, who played in The Football League until they dissolved in 2010, had a stadium that straddles the Welsh border, with the Club offices in England but the pitch actually in Wales.
For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 council areas, with wide variation in both size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas, as is the Highland Council, which includes a third of Scotland's area but only just over 200,000 people. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are 1,223; they are paid a part-time salary. Elections are conducted by single transferable vote in multi-member wards that elect either three or four councillors. Each council elects a Provost, or Convenor, to chair meetings of the council and to act as a figurehead for the area.
The London Borough of Harrow is one of the northern outer London boroughs: as such much of the Metropolitan Green Belt land is within the Borough boundaries. Parks and open spaces range from the large area around Harrow-on-the-Hill to the smaller gardens and recreation grounds; there are also a number of spaces taken up with golf courses . It has been suggested that Harrow is continuously losing its green space and trees.
Since 1955 London's green belt has extended significantly, stretching some 35 miles out in places. London's green belt now covers an area of 516,000 hectares, an area broadly three times larger than that of London itself. The London Society began debate about the city's green belt in 2014 with publication of a report entitled "Green Sprawl". Other organisations, including the Planning Officers Society, have since responded with specific calls for a review and proposals to balance land release with environmental protection. In 2016, the London Society and All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for London's Planning and Built Environment published plans for a 'green web' to replace the green belt in some locations. The ambition is to create a "multifunctional green infrastructure landscape" in which new-build and publicly accessible natural space sat side-by-side.
London is one of the largest urban areas in Europe, with an area of 1,572 km (607 sq mi). Its boundaries were set in 1965 when Greater London, which covers the 32 London boroughs and the City of London, was created. Almost two-thirds of it is green space and wetlands. Its population according to the 2011 census was 8.17 million.
In 1938, the Greater London area became the first region in Britain to use a green belt policy and introduced the Metropolitan Green Belt in order to combat urban sprawl. A 2005 agricultural census carried out by ADAS showed that 423 holdings were located in the London part of the metropolitan green belt, around 0.25% of the total number in Britain. The total land managed was 13,608 hectares, half of which was rented. Less than 10% of the land farmed was used for cultivation of organic materials, and the total contribution that farming made to the economy, excluding diversification activities, was less than £8 m. However, London's agricultural industry was shown to be much more reliant on activities pertaining to diversification, with just under a third of farm income attributed to it, exceeding the national average. The report stated that whilst farming was not a significant part of London's economy, it did have a vital role to play.