Parking in London

Lying in bed watching BBC news. Blow me if they are not doing a whole package about parking as a result of the announcement of the London Assembly’s investigation into parking enforcement in London.

I telephone the Beeb to ask if they can give out a number or email as they say there are hundreds of people contacting them with stories of unfairness etc. By the time I get over to the conference centre and go down to my press officer – BBC at conference are onto it and I do a number of interviews, TV and radio about the scrutiny. It would seem that both London residents and the media are very exited about this one. If you’ve got views yourself – let me know through my feedback form.

Later in the day, I put in a card to speak in the policing debate. You never know if you will be called, but you have to be in the auditorium just in case. In fact, I am called straight after the motion has been moved. My speech is really about the need for local response from local police to local people. I go through some of the work I have done on trying to get the Met to set up a system of call answering phone calls to the police locally. Far too many people say they can’t get through to their local police station at the moment. Finish on a happy ending – that our campaign to re-open Muswell Hill police station’s front counter has succeeded – Sir John Stevens (the Met’s top cop) is coming to do the honours on Monday.