Category Archives: Blog

Women at home

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Hotfoot over to a hall in Wembley for the rally at the end of the London Region Liberal Democrat Conference.

Wembley is not easy to access at the moment with the closure of all of its stations during the construction work for the new stadium. I gave up and took my car – only to find that although easy to get to – I might never leave as there were notices of road closures all over the place for the Diwali procession.

Anyway, the rally was titled: ‘London’s Winning Women’ – with myself, Dee Doocey (our new GLA member), Baroness Sally Hamwee from the London Assembly and Sarah Ludford MEP.

I talked about Bob Geldof’s recent pronouncements about how much he enjoyed coming home to his partner doing something very feminine in the kitchen – presumably to do with food or curtains. I can’t cook and have bare windows – maybe that’s why I’m divorced.

Now Bob’s recent comments about a women’s place being in the kitchen are usually the sort of thing that makes me want to throw up. However – if you really think about it, what Sir Bob is really, really saying is – women make the world a better place (wherever they are). I couldn’t agree more.

Many of the problems I see are because the people taking decisions at the highest levels in both politics and business are still generally men – which goes a long way to explaining why the world is the way it is. But before I launch into full scale debate mode – suffice to say – we rallied our supporters and fully expect to get at least five women elected in London to Parliament when Blair calls the election. And despite the flurry of speculation in the papers that it might be February – I still think May is the safer bet.

Awards ceremony for a road

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I go to the Grosvenor House Hotel to attend the British Construction Industry Awards as the guest of one of the sponsors – Anthony Oliver – the Editor of New Civil Engineer.

These dos (and this was about 1500 people) are almost all men. One brave one actually asked me out – didn’t know whether to be horrified or flattered. Usually they are too scared of me.

Anyway – John Humphreys was the compare for the awards and Charlie Faulkner the guest speaker. They were both brilliantly funny and a lesson in after dinner speaking.

A piece of road won the main prize. Whilst Anthony tried to explain to me that it was about teamwork and construction criteria, my aesthetic taste would have gone for something more tangibly elegant (such as last year’s winner, the Tate Modern).

However, it was a very successful occasion for the industry and for New Civil Engineer.

Ken wants me to be nicer to him!

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Meeting of the full Metropolitan Police Authority at which Sir Ian Blair is anointed and announced as the next Met Commissioner. No surprise there. He’s been trailed for at least 4 years as the heir apparent to Sir John Stevens (who is standing down). I wish him well.

Other business covered the funding of step change / safer neighbourhoods scheme, which involves putting lots more police on the ground in local communities. Everyone wants it rolled out across London but will the money be found for it? It’s looking unlikely that it will be fully funded in the Government’s announcements next week.

Then back to the GLA where our office Liaison Manager tells me that the Mayor’s press office have been moaning to him that I am too negative about the Mayor. Honestly Ken – I do think you are able to defend yourself perfectly adequately without sending someone to wheedle on your behalf.

I think Ken has done some brilliant things – but since becoming a Labour Mayor the

dynamic at London Government has fundamentally changed. Ken is now definitely a Mayor for Labour and not for a Greater London.

Missing transport targets

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Today, I publish a ‘dossier’ of the Mayor’s missed targets.

The Mayor and Transport for London are set to miss six out of thirteen key transport targets set by Government according to the Transport for London Business Plan.

By 2010 a range of targets will be missed, including:

– Reducing congestion in London – it is set to increase by 8% from 2000 levels by 2010

-Cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% and CO2 emissions by 20% from 1990 levels to help Britain comply with the Kyoto Protocol

– Meeting National Air Quality strategy objectives for reducing the amounts of Nitrous Dioxide and Particulate Matter 10 in London’s air

For all Ken’s talk on reducing congestion, improving air quality and being a champion of the environment – he sure has failed to deliver.

Reducing congestion was Ken’s flagship policy and yet the figures reveal that despite the huge success of the Central London Congestion Charge, the Mayor has not begun to even touch on congestion in other parts of London.

Nearly all the money has gone to supporting public transport to get people in and out of the centre so the Congestion Charge would work.

Well hurrah! It does – but there is virtually no improvement in public transport in outer London so people still – four years later – have no choice but to use their cars. And to add insult to injury – the five year business plan the Mayor is announcing today still says absolutely sweet FA on improving orbital public transport.

Later, off to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for a Black History month reception. My goodness! You wouldn’t believe this building. Most of us wouldn’t know it existed as it is in a private-ish road next to Downing Street.

As you go across courtyards into the Locarno Rooms – the overwhelming decoration and opulence of an era long gone are so in your face. Not my taste however, and jolly difficult to walk in high heels on mosaic tiles.

That having been said, it was a great juxtaposition to have a steel band playing in this bastion of British tradition. Speeches by Trevor Phillips and Mike O’Brian – followed by networking. Met a really interesting woman from South London who works with 18-25 year old black youngsters to train them as youth workers. She had taken seven of them to a black township in Soweto. She was saying how extraordinary it was to have to explain to black youngsters from London what apartheid actually was. Fantastic mission and eye opener. Very impressed with her and invited her to come to City Hall to talk further.

Archway Road fence

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Second meeting of Archway Road Residents’ Association. This meeting was exceptionally well attended – by politicians! One MP, two London Assembly members and a local councillor. The main discussion was about the Highgate Tube fence. There was a desire to see if there was room for any accommodation between the two polarised positions: the highest fence possible (from people living behind the Archway Road) or only a wire fence (from those living opposite the fence on the Archway Road).

My colleague Cllr Bob Hare will sound out the opposing views in the area over the next two weeks to see if there is a willingness to compromise around a reduced height fence with chicken wire on the higher part to retain the view. If there is – we will hold a public meeting to explore this further and see what we can do to make it happen.

New Tube depot

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Meeting on the site of the proposed Highgate Depot for Tubelines – one of the two private consortia now responsible for our Tube’s infrastructure.

They want to build a large control centre which (when it goes live in about six years time) will deliver real improvements to the Northern Line. God knows it needs it. As a twice a day Northern Line user – the delays are endless. This control centre will – when up and running – not only deliver more trains per hour – but also a much faster journey time. Hurrah!

However, the control centre is to be built at the back of Lanchester Road and quite visible from Highgate Wood. So – there are many concerns raised by residents and local groups about the visual and conservation aspects. Hence the meeting.

No planning permission is actually needed but Tubelines said they were keen to engage with residents. They’ve put out leaflets and are holding a public meeting on 4th November.

The main issues of concern raised by residents were about the position of the proposed building in relation to houses, the windows in the side, vehicle movements in and out of the site on the access road, the height of the building and location of rooms within the building, planting to screen the building and security. The concerns of the conservation groups were planting, wildlife and the impact on views from the woods.

Tubelines were very accommodating in terms of answering and trying to resolve all the above – even to the extent of considering my suggestion that they excavate and thereby drop the overall height of the building. No promises – but a clear willingness to mitigate as much as possible all of the residents concerns.

Hopefully at the meeting, this will continue to be the case – and both Tubelines and local residents will feel that they have an agreed accommodation to meet both sides’ needs.

Stop and search

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I had a meeting with David Warwick (Chief Executive, Haringey Council) about White Hart Lane Recreation Ground. Raised my concerns. He agreed to get the head of planning to follow up with further details about the case.

Later, I had the first meeting of a new sub-committee that I am chairing at the London Assembly. It is to monitor the implementation of the recommendations from the investigation into the police’s use of stop and search Scrutiny which the MPA (including myself) carried out earlier this year.

Developments and PPP

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Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall. Our main thrust today is by my colleague Dee Doocey about a big planning application in Stratford.

Mayor Livingstone is forever attacking councils who do not ensure that 50% of housing in new developments is social housing. Yet on this project … he’s accepted plans which only have 30%. A case of one rule for him, one rule for others …? He says we need to be flexible and understand where developers are coming from. Wonder if he’ll grant the same understanding to councils in future?

My own little merriment for the day is to ask him if the cat got his tongue over the huge profits made by Tubelines and Metronet in their first year (over £90million) and the bonus paid to Terry Morgan (Chief Executive of Tubelines), even though the company failed to meet 27 out of its 39 targets.

Thus far the Mayor had remained unusually silent on the matter. Historically (even hysterically) Ken is not usually silent about fat cats and obscene profits. Tempted by my question – good old Ken reappeared and he took great pleasure in letting out his spleen regarding the privatisation of the tube. I knew it was in there!

Playing fields in Wood Green

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Meeting in the morning with Michael Cordwell James at White Hart Lane Recreation Ground. Michael started and is leading a campaign to save this little patch of open space from the grasp of Sir Thomas Moore School.

Thomas Moore School which has a playground (enclosed) beyond which is Pond Park, also known as White Hart Lane Recreation Grounds. This open space is used by the local community (and the school sometimes). Now Thomas Moore school has applied to annex half of the space to create their own facility – an all-weather pitch.

Now, more resources for schools (especially playing fields!) are normally good news. But this plan would deprive other people in the area of access to much of the space. Not so good news. Does the school really have to expand in this way?

In particular, a few minutes walk away is the New River Sports Centre and also White Hart Lane school (which both already have all weather pitches).

It would be the obvious move to enhance and improve New River so that both schools and the community could benfit from a state of the art sports facility – and keeping their green space open to all.

I part and decide I need to see the Chief Exec of Haringey Council on this one.

Also, a little flurry of emails from miffed local Tories – miffed at my description of their local chair as ‘some bloke‘.

Apart from not actually knowing that the guy who stood up was the chair of the local Tories (recognise the name, but not the face) – the reason I used the term ‘some bloke’ was because that is what the guy who stood up was purporting to be at first. He did not say who he was. It was only when a member of the audience asked him after his long tirade to say who he was, that he declared his true colours (blue) and stated that he was the chair of the local Conservatives.

Quoting Shakespeare to trade unionists

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Sarah Kennedy (wife of Charles) came over to have a look at City Hall, have lunch with me and catch up on things. We knew each other when Charles was just a glint in her eye. As the news of her pregnancy had just been announced – there was much to talk about and not much of it about politics! She is just such an excellent partner for him – with a good sense of balance between her own life and support for his. He is one lucky man.

After lunch, went to the TUC in Great Russell Street for a meeting of the Commission for Racial Equality London Board (of which I am a member). The first hour is in the hall to hear a speech by its chair, Trevor Phillips first as part of Black History month.

It was quite an interesting speech. It’s probably the first time I have heard someone delivering a speech to union members quoting Shakespeare! The content was interesting and thoughtful and appeared to be well received.

There was a reception after, but I went on upstairs to the actual meeting of the CRE London Board. One of the key issues on the agenda was how to deal with the rise of the far right – exemplified by the election of a BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham.