Today I am announcing that I will be standing as an independent candidate for the Mayor of London in 2016. I have been campaigning via my website banprivatecarsinlondon.com for a sea change in the way transport is organised on the streets of London.

Only radical reform will transform our city from a polluted, congested and dangerous space for people living, working and visiting here to a liveable city where people can breathe.

Active travel has immense potential for keeping our economy vibrant, our citizens healthy, reducing NHS costs, inequality and creating the feel-good factor.

Private cars are the least economically viable mode of transport in urban areas. This is why I want to prioritise safe walking, protected inclusive cycling, accessible clean and low-priced public transport and electric sharing taxis.

I would also like to free up the vast quantities of land used for parking. Private cars, on average, are parked 95% of the time. There are approximately 6.8 million parking spaces in London (Transport Statistics User Group 2001) which, based on the minimum parking space per vehicle, take up an astonishing 78.5 km sq.

When housing is in crisis in our city, we need to seriously re evaluate how space is allocated. I would like to designate car parks as brownfield sites, to house key workers at reasonable rents, linked to their jobs in the vicinity.

From the City-centre  outwards we can change the car culture of London to create a liveable city where children are free to roam once again without the fear of road danger.