The £18,000bomb-prooflitter bins

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20 FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2007 EVENING STANDARD

‘He’s the one with thedangly bits’KEN LIVINGSTONE EXPLAINS HOW TODISTINGUISH BETWEEN HIMSELF AND

THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON

LONDON WHISPERS

ROW OF THE WEEK

QUOTE OF THE DAY

UPS & DOWNS

INSIDECITY HALL

HAVE YOU ANY CITY HALL GOSSIP?� cityhall@standard.co.uk

Brian Coleman v Murad Qureshi

Score: Coleman 1 Qureshi ... and next week

IN September, 38,000 people took totheir bikes for the Hovis Freewheelevent that saw roads throughoutcentral London closed. Mayor Kenwants to repeat it next year — andasked the Assembly to approve thereappointment of a £40,000-a-yearevents manager. But Tory deputychairman Coleman used his castingvote to block the move, recalling thatKen paid Blue Peter presenterKonnie Huq £4,750 to attend a pressconference at which he criticisedColeman’s £10,000 taxi bill. The BBClater apologised to Coleman for Huq’sappearance at the “political rant”.Labour member Qureshi saidColeman’s stance ran counter to thepro-cycling policy of Tory mayoralcandidate Boris Johnson. “This onlygoes to show that the Tories’ greengestures are just that,” he added.

■ THE next statue on TrafalgarSquare’s fourth plinth, Hotel ForThe Birds, is unveiled after MayorKen rescued the project with anextra £153,000 of public funds.

Going places: Rob Holden —Channel Tunnelrail link boss willsee the Queenopen high-speedline to St Pancrasnext week.

Out of sorts: JoyJohnson — spindoctor sees Tube“fares freeze”row overshadowlaunch ofMayor’s skillsstrategy.

■ BORIS JOHNSONpanicked his spindoctors byexpressing a loveof pigeons. He canname 1 types but,fearing lost votes,vowed “drasticaction” to ensurethe “aerial vermin”are “exterminated”.

■ BORIS hasvowed to reformthe C-charge. Hisbarrister wife,Marina Wheeler,was part of theWestminster teamthat once tried tohave it thrown outby the High Court,

claiming the Mayorfailed to consult orhold a publicinquiry. She lost.

■ REDBRIDGELabour councillorBalvinder Saundhas been chosen totake on Tory RogerEvans in next year’sAssemblyelections. Evanssaid: “I made apoint ofcongratulating her.Her reply — ‘whoare you?’ — waseither the best put-down in history orreveals a steeplearning curve.”

complete with TVscreens on the sides( )

Dual purpose: an artist’s impression of the Renew bin with an LCD screen that could give out information in an emergency

IT is a bin unlike any other — but it couldprovide a solution to security concerns,help increase recycling and keep com-muters up to date with breaking news,weather and delays on the Tube.

It could also end the frustrating searchfor somewhere to dispose of rubbish ina city that now offers terrorists as fewopportunities as possible to plant a bomb.

The Renew bin, which costs £15,000 toproduce and £3,000 to install, has beendesigned to withstand the force of abomb blast so it can be used in sensitiveareas such as Tube stations and airports.

During the five-year design and testingperiod, prototypes with steel casing wereblown up in the New Mexico desert.

The plastic surround is made fromrecycled materials and has an LCDscreen on which news, weather andsports reports can be shown.

Each unit is big enough to contain a typical household wheelie bin — to makeit easy for binmen to collect and empty.

During an emergency such as the 7/7attacks, the screen’s content could bechanged within minutes to direct Lon-

doners away from certain areas or Tubestations. The bins are the work ofentrepreneurs Kaveh Memari and BrianJames, who met in Canada and studied atthe London School of Economics beforesetting up a company, Media Metrica.

They plan to offer the bins, which theyprefer to call “recycling units”, free toLondon local authorities and recoup thecost via sponsorship from firms keen toemphasise their corporate social respon-sibility — London currently recyclesonly 25 per cent of its waste.

Discussions with at least one councilare said to be at an “advanced” stage.

Mr James said: “The UK needs toimprove its performance on recycling.

“We recognised that in a post-7/7 worldwe needed to deliver a sustainable andsecure solution that didn’t cost anythingto the public purse.”

ROSS LYDALLCity Hall Editor

FOR MORE INFO �www.renewsolution.com