Tag Archives: ken livingstone

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!

Profits on the Tube

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Interview for London Tonight on the obscene profits made by Tubelines in their first year of running the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines. To add insult to injury, their Chief Executive, Terry Morgan has received GBP100,000 bonus.

Now the profit was expected. That’s the consequence of Labour’s tube privatisation scheme, with GBP41million profit taken out of the tube rather than reinvested in the infrastructure.

But in this first year, Tubelines failed to reach 27 of their 39 targets. Of course, the Chief Exec’s bonus was for delivering the profits to shareholders rather than delivering an improved service to London’s poor tube users.

Strangely enough, Mayor Livingstone – erstwhile opponent of the PPP – made no comment. Well – now he’s a Labour Mayor…!

Livingstone hikes our fares

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Ken Livingstone announces that he will raise fares in London in the region of inflation + 20%. Lots of smoke and mirrors around peak hours and this and that – but bottom line – mega fare rise. And the bugger compounds this by stating that we can expect inflation busting rises for the next three years as well.

I do a rash of radio interviews on Ken’s dishonesty and broken promises before the election about fare rises. Also cover issue of having the most expensive fares in the world already and this would drive people off public transport and back into their cars. The low paid worker can ill afford to live in London already – this will just be another nail in the coffin.

In the afternoon, big debate on the party’s “pre-manifesto” document – Freedom, Fairness, Trust. Basically sets out the party’s overall policy for the general election – though more details will be announced closer to the time. You can see the top ten points on our national website.

Livingstone and fare increases

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An early start to Mayor’s Question Time as Ken has to leave for Moscow at 10.50am.

He starts in good form – but as the thrust of the first question begins to bite suffers his normal deterioration in humour. The question itself is about an area in Spittalfields where the proposed route of CrossRail would mean building a ventilation and emergency shaft in the middle of a densely populated area with narrow streets.

Everyone is concerned about the well-being of this community.

Ken finally loses his cool with me. So no change there after his summer break!

We go onto a question about finances. There is a looming half billion hole in the Mayor’s budget. I’m highly suspicious that his intention will be to fill as much of it as necessary by digging into Londoners’ pockets by increaseing fares and his share of Council Tax bills (called “the precept”) in due course.

With Ken having just been re-elected, this is his “safe” period when he feels he can do as he pleases – with one election out of the way and the next a long time away. He informs us that he will make an announcement on his proposed fare increases next Tuesday at his press conference.

We had been informed earlier this morning that he has cancelled his visit to the LibDem conference due to – as his office put it – an ’emergency crisis budget meeting’.

I challenged him on his dishonesty pre-election when he promised time and time again when the fares were raised last January that he would peg the price of tickets to inflation.

This will clearly be broken next week and – given our fares are the highest in the world and the cost of living in London is making it a nightmare for key workers and the like – this is going to make things worse. Let alone making a nonsense of the benefits of the congestion charge in reducing traffic – when the fare hike could send people back into their cars.

I accused him of telling porky-pies and received a rebuke for using such langugate. Mind you, “porky pie” was mild compared to what I would have liked to call him!

We moved onto the ’emergency budget crisis meeting’. Ken laughed (as he does) and said it was simply a meeting with Transport for London to determine how the government’s grant would be spent – i.e. which transport projects he would have to drop given that raiding all of our little piggy banks through fares still won’t be enough to plug the hole and fund his wish list.

I rest my case – emergency crisis budget meeting was the right terminology.

The answer to London's bus problems?

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Very bizarre experience. I had a meeting arranged with a woman who had emailed me. She had discovered, she said, the solution to all the problems of London’s buses. She had been unable to get through to the Mayor or Peter Hendy (Director of Surface Transport, Transport for London) – so asked if I would see her and perhaps support her ideas.

I get a fair number of contacts from people who say they have a great transport idea which they can’t get people interested in. I try to see people whenever possible – but they usually give me an idea of their idea – so to speak. She wouldn’t. It was a secret.

She had said that she was wary of telling anyone her idea in case they ‘stole’ it and she wanted to own the commercial rights to her idea. In the end I agreed to a meeting and she came into City Hall to my office.

When we met, the first thing she said was that she had brought along a ‘non-disclosure agreement’ for me to sign. Whilst I am perfectly happy to keep a confidence if someone in that situation wants to be assured that I won’t pass on an idea – I certainly don’t believe in elected politicians signing anything that might prevent openness and accountability.

She said that she couldn’t tell me her idea without my signing this document. I said that I was sorry that it would seem, therefore, to be a wasted journey on her part. I had been quite clear about this before the meeting was arranged.

It was all quite pleasant and well-behaved – but certainly bizarre. I explained to her that she really did need to see Peter Hendy or Livingstone if she wanted to ‘sell’ her idea to them and wished her well.

Of course, I am still curious about what the idea is!

Development in Hornsey

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Rush back to Haringey for the hearing into an appeal over a controversial backlands development in Hornsey. The developers are appealing over the rejection of their plans. In my view, their plans are a dreadful proposal, which would stuff huge houses on a bit of land that falls between the back gardens of a triangle of houses.

The permission was refused – but as ever – developers don’t give up – so the appeal was this morning.

I’ve got a busy diary today so Benji – one of the key organisers of the protesters, kindly says he will try and get me in early so I can give my evidence.

I had been to Mayor Livingstone on this and got his agreement that this was the type of development which he doesn’t approve of as it doesn’t provide affordable housing nor is the sort of sustainable development which we need.

But it looks like a no-show all round with neither the Planning Inspector nor council officers turning up on time. I hang around for a fair while, but with no sight of them – have to make my move to next meeting. Think the inspector was ill in the end – though would have been good if information had got to everyone waiting sooner!

Mayor's Question Time

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Mayor’s Question Time. Ken launches into the Professor’s visit as part of his verbal update to the Assembly. He speaks very well and totally refutes (and I believed him) the allegations that have been made as to what the Professor did or did not say in terms of incitement to hatred.  Ken then goes into the sad reality that we are probably, in fact almost certainly, going to get more tube strikes in the coming weeks.  I have a go at him to get down and get involved as he has such influence with the unions. He refuses. I ask him if, as he says, this is the best deal ever on the table, whether he thinks it would be a good idea to put a camera in on the negotiations so that we Londoners can see who is lying.  He’s a clever bugger – ‘cos he immediately turns it back on me as Chair of Transport and suggests I invite all of them in for an argy bargy in my committee. I would love to – but bet they wouldn’t come. I can only invite outsiders like the unions – unlike the GLA family who I can actually summons. Still – I’m still thinking about it……….

Ken and I have a little rumba over the 4 x 4 charging issue. Ken is keen to jump on my bandwagon – but warns that the legalities will be very difficult. We’ll see.

 

We get to the motion at the end. There have been fevered attempts by the Tories, Greens and UKIP to get an all party motion instead of the one they have tabled as they have managed to realise that they have knee-jerked to the tabloids tune. However, they can never manage to agree amongst themselves – and so the LibDem amendment gets put and passed and the Green motion falls even with Tory support.  Two gentlemen from the Muslim Council are in the audience and we have a brief chat afterwards when I sweetly point out that I was right to resist

their pressures.

Election press conference

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Press conference with Charles Kennedy, Simon Hughes and Chris Rennard (campaign guru and mastermind of LibDem successes) at Lib Dem HQ.

We all walk in and sit – lots of journos and a couple of TV stations in attendance.

Charles kicks off with a stirring piece about our chances of success (good). He takes the national angle.

Then Simon speaks about what he will do for London and then I have a go at Ken Livingstone.

He has his own agenda – not really London’s. And he will spend on his pet projects, areas and his own publicity. If you cross him, he is vitriolic and vengeful. Given the piece the Guardian G2 ran quoting me on Ken’s nastier aspects – I hope and pray

Simon wins – or Ken will be out to get me. Nasty business – hey?

Then Chris Rennard does the real business of the day – revealing the new polling showing that Simon is really closing on Norris and that if he pulls that off – the second preferences that come his way once Norris is out the race put him within 1% of beating Ken – too close to call.

Really exciting now!

Falling out of love with Ken

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Take scrutiny officers that have served the Transport Committee to pub for a thank you drink after the last meeting of the Transport Committee in the first term of London government. I felt rather sentimental after four years of absolute pleasure in my brief – and felt even more sentimental after a couple of gin and tonics.

Sadly, I had to go back to work to finish of the speech I had been writing for Thursday evening’s London Region Lib Dem Rally.

At the rally, Charles Kennedy, Simon Hughes, Sarah Ludford (MEP) and I are primed to rally our troops and kick off our London campaign.

So we did. Charles was in excellent form. Spoke for 20 minutes without notes, stirring stuff! And he seemed fit and well – which I was as relieved about as everyone else.

Simon gave us his vision for London (more of which will follow over the coming weeks of the election – and will be launched to the media on Monday), then Sarah and then me.

If I say so myself, it was one of my better speeches. I had an unashamed attack on my ex-best friend Mayor Livingstone. I will publish the speech on the web next week. But made the serious points through humour – and there are lots of not very funny things about Ken which after four years working with him I can see explain very well why he was treated like the devil incarnate by the Labour Party last time out.

Chelsfield's trains

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All hell has broken loose in Chelsfield. Where’s Chelsfield? It’s a small rail station, just part Orpington – a commuter village where almost all the population rely on the train to link them to their work in Central London.

But the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has put out to consultation their plans to make the railways more “efficient”. In real terms they are proposing large cuts to the peak hour services.

As I travelled down to chair a meeting with local residents, I have to stand all the way. The driver announces that there are seats down the front of the train – so I make my way from the back towards the front. Three carriages on, I give up.

There are packed carriages with standing passengers everywhere and it is, in the end, impassable. If this is what it is like with 6 trains – no wonder life as Chelsfield has known it will end if they cut the numbers.

The meeting is packed with over 150 people. Simon Hughes (as LibDem spokesperson for London) is there, as is Chris Maines, the Leader of the Opposition on the local council, and Duncan Borrowman – the LibDem GLA candidate. We all agree, despite the fact that the LibDems have organised the meeting and form the panel – that all political parties need to act and stand together to fight these proposals.

A couple of hours later the meeting agrees to take it forward in a variety of ways. My role is to champion it at GLA level and respond to the SRA from the LibDem GLA group. There will be people counts at the station and representations at all levels.

The SRA are an outrageous body who seem to care nothing for regional needs and support unquestioningly the Train Operating Companies whose only interest is the profit from long-haul journeys. That’s why it is vital that London has its own Commuter Rail Authority. Peoples’ lives and life choices are based on the ability to travel into central London – but the SRA couldn’t care less. Given their constant failure to make any headway with our rail industry – their days must be numbered.

What’s more, Mayor Livingstone has singularly failed to get anything out of them with what powers he does have. We had all the players into a scrutiny of the Assembly Transport Committee last year and they assured us that the best way forward was to rely on the very good working relationship between the Mayor and the SRA.

But the ‘working relationship’ has delivered nothing but reduced rail services for London. Time the Mayor used his teeth and issued directions rather than guidance – which are the two powers he has under the GLA act – but he won’t!