Caroline's news

The Mayor of London has promised to write to all hospitals across London to ensure that anonymous data about violent incidents is shared with the police to ensure there is effective action to tackle knife and other violent crime hot spots, following questioning by Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group.

The Mayor has also agreed, if it is necessary, to call a summit at City Hall to ensure that the full adoption of the crime prevention model.

As a Freedom of Information request revealed that temperatures on the Mayor's "new Routemaster" buses can reach 34 degrees Celsius - above the legal limit even for transporting livestock - Caroline Pidgeon told the politics.co.uk website:

"Pretending that there is not a problem with the new bus for London is simply not an option for the Mayor and TfL.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, speaking about the rollout of contactless payment (‘wave and pay’) to Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London, said:

“Providing an additional form of payment for passengers is welcome, as long as it is nothing more than an additional form of payment and people are not pushed into having to use it.

In a Guardian article by Rowan Moore, Caroline Pidgeon discusses some concerns about the project to build a Garden Bridge from Temple to the South Bank:

These rapid changes of position caused Caroline Pidgeon, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly, to spot a pattern. The mayor’s statements on the bridge had been “totally false, just as with his past claims about the funding of the cycle hire scheme and the Thames cable car”. ...

The London Assembly has backed the Alzheimer’s Society ‘Dementia Friends’ campaign, which aims for at least one million supporters by 2015. The Assembly also called for training across the GLA and the wider group to understand the disease.

Dementia is a growing problem in London, with huge personal and economic costs for society. Dementia costs the UK £26 billion a year – enough to pay the energy bills of every household in the country. People with dementia, their carers and families shoulder two-thirds of the cost themselves.