I met up with team from Hornsey Central Hospital group, at my request as I am trying to work out the travel planning and public transport provision way before the start date.
Knowing how difficult it is to get extra routes or stops out of Transport for London, I wanted to add my help in any way possible. It was a really useful discussion and I hope that we can bring in Individualised Travel Planning for the staff, encouraging them to use public transport.
Lunch with the Governor of the Tower of London in the Tower of London.
Well – that was fun! Good lunch and very interesting history of the Tower plus extremely interesting insights from the Governor himself about living over the shop. Not repeatable!
Then a tour of the Tower and the Crown Jewels. I still think all that elaborate gold looks tacky – but pretty impressed
with the rocks.
Today was Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall. As ever much of the debate was around transport issues – and as I lead on Transport for the LibDems as well as being Chair of the Transport Committee, I get to do all the talking.
Mayor Livingstone, the Tories, Labour etc al. – they all had a go at the LibDems for one thing or another. I can only assume that they are all feeling threatened. The Tories are apoplectic because we have come out against the Mayor’s proposals to extend the Congestion Charge westwards into Kensington & Chelsea. When the Tories are against congestion charging – no one blinks with surprise. But when the LibDems, who are 100% supporters of the congestion charge say no to the extension – then the Mayor really ought to take notice.
Firstly it’s premature. We won’t have any of the proper analysis from the monitoring data until next February – nothing about the impact on business, the economy or the social aspects of the charge. Secondly – it’s going to cost £120million that we haven’t got to set it up – and there will be roughly break even when up between income and running costs. When there is so much that needs doing, it wouldn’t be my first choice for that £120million.
Also – it’s the wrong technological way forward. We must move to Global Satellite Positioning so that we can target congested hot spots – the blunt tool of area charging won’t work to expand the scheme. The first central area was OK because there was a definable logic – people coming into and going home from work.
Congestion Charging needs to grow up and become far more sophisticated and planned for those areas that need it and want it anywhere in London – not just Zone 1.
Only fools (and Ken) rush in …
The other battle we had was over the Governments’ CriminJusticetic Bill to which the LibDems had put down an amendment. What the Government is suggesting is that anyone who is detained at a police station should have
a DNA test AND that the records should be held in perpetuity regardless of whether that person goes onto be charged or convicted. So even if completely innocent – that person would forever have their DNA on record. Moving towards a police state very fast at the moment with ID cards, CCTV cameras, removal of trial by jury.
Obviously there is a balance between catching and incarceratinging criminals and civil liberties – but it is too easy to become draconian in justice’s name and to wake up and find that we live in a state not so different to the communist states we used to loathe. Big Brother is knocking on our door.
If the Government wants to keep a DNA register of citizens – then let it fight for that and have a proper debate – not remove our freedoms by stealth.
Later in the evening in London’s Living Room (the reception area on top of City Hall with panoramic views of London) there was a joint reception between Mayor and Assembly for pan-London organisations. Spent a long time chatting to one of the witnesses from the morning session from Positively Women and Elizabeth Manero who heads London Health Link. I am sure we three women could put the world to rights just between us!
Rushed back to Highgate to a ‘shopping evening’ at one of the village gift shops and, much to my surprise, managed to buy quite a few bits and pieces. I am already panicking about Christmas …
In the morning at the London Assembly’s Health Committee there was one of those really rare moments – when the evidence given by witnesses is riveting and new.
We are carrying out an investigation into AIDS /HIV in London – it is rising and these days unheard and unseen compared to its arrival on the scene years ago. Then we were all terrified by the unknown quantity it presented and haunted by our pasts.
One of the witnesses from one of the voluntary agencies was giving her own experience of being an African woman, HIV positive, arriving in this country with children – and how hard it was to deal with such a stigmatised illness, particularly coming from a culture where such things are not discussed and certainly not discussed with ones children.
Full council in Haringey Chamber. Full council often feels pointless and tonight was no exception.
The only moment of interest came when local residents came to make their presentation and present a petition for a pelican crossing on Priory Road (which I heartily support) and none of the microphones were working except the Mayor’s.
Fifteen minutes of embarrassing nothingness – until eventually the spokesperson for the deputation made the presentation from the Mayor’s mike on the dais. 800 odd signatures – I hope the Council acts as it is only a matter of time before there is a serious or fatal accident there.
A car came at half past midnight to whisk me off to LBC.
Through the Night with Mike Mendoza was the programme – a night phone-in for the insomniacs of the capital. I love the intimacy and womb-like feeling of radio studios, particularly at this hour – in the dead of the night.
Loads of people telephoning in, and the presenter Mike Mendoza was experienced in handling the variety of human life with care and consideration. One woman phoned about how people who aren’t well and have to go to hospital should be exempt from the congestion charge and rambled fairly incoherently on about her experiences. Mike passed me a note just tipping me that she had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. Peoples’ lives are so complex.
Most of the questions were quite political – and for once as I was there as a LibDem I could give political answers – and not in the usual 30 second soundbite way: I had an hour and a half. Complete bliss!
Buswatch AGM this afternoon.
I am so proud of Buswatch. I started it because as a bus campaigner I had been corresponding with about 200 people who were interested in various aspects of buses.
Eventually I thought it would be better if a non-political group could take this on – hence Buswatch. It has been going for about two years now and does a tremendous job of raising issues, monitoring services and generally doing exactly what its title says on behalf of West Haringey.
Transport Committee this morning and we are hearing Transport for London present their business plan. Basic wheeze is that they have a balanced budget (they have to by law anyway) and for that money they could just about carry out their commitments to contracts already agreed and any safety work necessary.
Everything else – be that the West London Tram, better bus services, anything at all – the government has to give them the money. And the cost is around £900 million. The wheeze is that the way they present it isn’t about the Mayor having a pie in the sky wish list for which he has no money – but that if the Government don’t give him the money – they will be
condemning London to no improvements and indeed a worsening transport system. Clever hey?
The Mayor is consulting on the proposed westward extension of the congestion charge zone.
He is required to consult with the Assembly – and the Assembly usually passes such responses to the appropriate committee, in this case the Transport Committee.
So I need to produce two outcomes – one is the Lib Dem response and one is to try and get a cross-party Assembly response. The latter will be quite a challenge in a year leading up to elections!
On the LibDem line – we are basically opposing the Mayor’s proposals. Now when the Tories oppose congestion charging, it’s political and because Steve Norris has already said he will remove the existing congestion charge. So – their position is the usual pro-car position.
However, when the LibDems oppose this proposed extension, there’s a good reason – as we are staunch supporters of the charge and I have always gone out there to bat for it against all the forces ranged against it in the run up to its go live last February.
However, this proposed extension is ill thought out, ill-conceived, rushed and economically apparently insane. Apart from that…
OK to explain:
Firstly – we don’t get the analysis of the first year of the charge until next spring. We have no accurate information on the effect on business, the economy or social impacts of the charge. Traffic impacts we do know, but not the rest. Only fools rush in where they haven’t a clue about the real effects of the charge. I think it has been a great policy and a great success – but I want to be very sure before making further decisions.
Secondly – whereas the original central charging area clearly covered the ground where the radial routes in and out the West End meant you would be targeting the working commuter for the most part, the extension to Kensington and Chelsea and the rest of Westminster is very residential by comparison and therefore quite a different scenario.
Also – the inmates (so to speak) would get a 90% discount. This extrapolated to any other areas of congestion charging logically would mean in the end everyone was discounted and therefore the charge would not inhibit travel.
Thirdly – outdated (yes already) technology means that this proposed extension takes it to the limit of its capacity. Any further extensions or areas in London which want or need a charge to deal with major traffic jams would have to have a completely new system.
The Mayor needs to do some strategic planning and change to Global Positioning Satellite system which would be able to target congestion hot spots wherever they were, or whatever time of day was crowded or whatever day of the week – anywhere in London. We need congestion charging to grow up, become more sophisticated so that it can work as a real tool in controlling traffic congestion anywhere.
This technology already exists – that is where we should be aiming. And all vehicles would have a little gismo / transponder – so that you are automatically charged if you enter a congestion zone and don’t have to remember to phone up each time.
And fourthly – the economics of it. I agree congestion charging is about reducing congestion and not about income – but not to the point of this financial consequence. The running cost and the revenue from the proposed extension are at about break even. Fair enough. However, the set up cost for the extension is estimated at £100 million. Now the Mayor is facing a budget deficit of £1billion after next year if he wants to implement
his various plans as well as maintain the current levels of transport provision. When you have no money for improvements – perhaps it is not the best time to spend £100 million that you haven’t got and which anyway could be better spent on something else.
So – hopefully – his consultation with us and the other members of the GLA family will focus his thinking a bit more strategically then it seems to be at the moment.
Lynne Featherstone 