Caroline's news

Leader of the Liberal Democrats at City Hall, Caroline Pidgeon AM, joined Haverstock Liberal Democrats – Rahel Bokth, Jill Fraser, and Matt Sanders – on Saturday to help them with their council by-election on Tuesday 25th May. The team were in good spirits and many local residents were pledging their support for the hard working local team, who all live in the ward.

Matt and Jill have been councillors for a number of years and have a really strong track record of campaigning for local people from protecting Talacre Gardens, to getting the local library open for longer and securing extra police for our streets.

The by-election was caused by the sad death of Lib Dem candidate Cllr Syed Hoque in the campaign.

Lib Dem London Transport Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon AM, joined Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Simon Hughes with Southwark Lib Dem Leader Cllr Anood Al-Samerai, Cllr Wilma Nelson and other local supporters on a trip up and down the new London Overground line which opened on Sunday 23rd May.

The team started at Surrey Quays and went up to Dalston Junction in Hackney, before having a café break in Hoxton going south. The team finished up in Crystal Palace.

“The new service is really impressive. However, not all of the trains had any air cooling systems working which on such a hot day meant the trains were rather hot – something I’ll be taking up with the Mayor!” commented Caroline.

Lib Dem London Transport Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon AM joined Harrow East Lib Dem campaigner Nahid Boethe at Stanmore station in the run up to the General Election to look at the serious issue of step free access. Harrow Liberal Democrats were collecting signatures for a petition to make the station properly step free. Despite the station being described as 'step free' the reality is that at Stanmore Tube station wheelchair users not only face a very long journey to access the ramp but they also face a step between the platform and the trains.

"It is just disgraceful that at present there are no plans to improve access at Stanmore tube station until 2016 at the earliest. This situation is totally unacceptable, especially as the station is widely used by patients from across London who need to visit the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital" commented Caroline Pidgeon.

A key meeting next week will probably be the final chance to secure funding for Surrey Canal Road station on the East London Line. This week Boris Johnson confirmed to Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Transport Spokesperson, that funding of the station will be one of the key issues on the agenda of a meeting being held next week (Thursday 27th May) between the Mayor of London and Philip Hammond MP, the new Secretary of State for Transport.

Caroline Pidgeon, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, has strongly welcomed the commitment to abolish the Government Office for London (GoL), as set out in the coalition government’s Programme for Government which was published this week.

Commenting on the announcement, Caroline Pidgeon said:

“The Government Office for London has been on borrowed time ever since the creation of the Mayor and London Assembly in 2000. It is a superfluous bureaucracy which we can all do without.”