Scrutinising the Mayor articles

Assembly calls for review of Blackfriars Bridge speed limit

Seconding a London Assembly motion calling for consideration to be given to a permanent 20mph speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge, Caroline Pidgeon commented:

“A third of the peak time traffic across Blackfriars Bridge are cyclists and we already know that they are at significantly more risk when travelling across bridges than they are on similar city roads. That’s why we want Transport for London (TfL) to take a robust look at the safety of all users on Blackfriars Bridge and for the Mayor to use the facts to put safety first."

21 July 2011 - 9:39pm

Extraordinary that Met officers accepted News Of The World hospitality

In a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting yesterday, Paul Stephenson admitted that - as revealed by Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information enquiries - senior members of the Met accepted lunches and dinners from News International executives, including the former executive editor of the paper, who is under arrest on suspicion of phone hacking.

Caroline Pidgeon told ITV's London Tonight:

It seems extraordinary to me that senior members of the Met would have lunches and dinners with newspapers.

They give their reasons why it is "reasonable" - I don't think it is, and I don't think it looks it to the public.

You can see ITV's video report here - and also read the BBC's coverage here.

15 July 2011 - 9:52am

TfL begins work to reduce Oyster overcharging

Following Caroline Pidgeon and the London Assembly Liberal Democrats' sustained campaigning on the issue of passengers being overcharged on their Oyster cards for "incomplete" journeys, Transport for London have now formally recognised the issue and begun work to improve the situation.

In response to a Freedom Of Information request from the London Assembly Lib Dems, TfL stated:

We recognise that more can be done and are working to further improve Oyster and the service provided to customers, including improved journey history information and work on a technological solution which we hope to introduce later this year to tackle the issue of incomplete journeys.

Read TfL's full response here.

Speaking on this issue, Caroline Pidgeon told the London24 website:

The current level of overcharging is totally unacceptable. There is something very seriously wrong when each and every week of the year Londoners are ripped off by more than £1 million.
It is vital that TfL and the Mayor find a solution to stop so many passengers being ripped off.

You can read London24's coverage here.

9 July 2011 - 8:56pm

City Hall "business lounges" were an extravagant waste

A whole year after Caroline Pidgeon criticised the GLA's wasteful spending on two "business lounges" in City Hall, the Mayor has decided after all to remove them.

Caroline told the Evening Standard: "Spending £25,000 on setting up and furnishing business lounges that are then removed some 12 months later is an extravagance that London council taxpayers can ill afford."

1 July 2011 - 6:02pm

Assembly demands answers over passengers' Southeastern ordeal

The London Assembly’s Transport Committee, led by Caroline Pidgeon has written to Southeastern trains seeking an explanation for the severe delays yesterday evening, and how passengers – some of whom left the train and walked along the tracks to escape the sweltering conditions – will be compensated.

A broken down train in Dartford caused significant delays to Southeastern services during the evening rush hour, and left passengers on one train stuck just outside Bexleyheath for almost two hours on the hottest day of the year.

1 July 2011 - 5:57pm

Time for the Mayor and TfL to work to improve industrial relations

Commenting on the finding of the Employment Tribunal that RMT Union member Arwyn Thomas had been unfairly dismissed from his job as a Tube driver, Caroline Pidgeon Leader of the Liberal Democrat Assembly Group, said:

"London Underground have previously said that if the tribunal cleared Mr Thomas he would be re-instated. I hope that LU bosses will acknowledge the Tribunal's findings and that the RMT will also call off the further strike action they have planned so London can go about its normal business."

22 June 2011 - 9:47pm

No grounds for complacency over transport crime

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on the Mayor welcoming the latest crime figures for London’s transport network, said:

“The Mayor should not be complacent with these latest figures. Across the whole of London’s transport network there has been no uniform fall in crime – indeed in some areas levels have increased, and in some cases by a significant degree.

3 June 2011 - 6:58pm

Network Rail’s Olympic and Paralympic timetable puts Southeastern to shame

Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, commenting on today’s announcement that next Summer there will be more than 2,000 extra train services serving London during the Olympic Games and an additional 1,500 extra services during the Paralympic Games said

“It is incredibly welcome that nearly 4,000 additional train services will run during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

25 May 2011 - 10:56pm

Caroline supports petition to safeguard cyclists from lorry dangers

The London Cycling Campaign took their campaign for safer roads directly to City Hall this week. Their petition calling for local councils across London to provide cyclist awareness training for lorry drivers, was jointly presented to Caroline Pidgeon and London Assembly Members representing all the other main political parties. The LCC petition, which has more than 10,000 signatures, has now been sent onto the Mayor of London.

Commenting on the need to make London's roads safer for cyclists, Caroline said:
"Cycling in London needs to be made far safer. More than one cyclist a month dies on London's roads - that is a shocking figure and is unacceptable."

18 May 2011 - 10:10pm

Another week, another broken Jubilee Line promise

A promise made by the Mayor of London and Transport for London that an improved timetable and increased capacity will be seen on the Jubilee Line from early July will not now happen, according to new documents discovered by Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group.

As recently as the 28th April Transport for London issued a press release stating that a new timetable will be introduced on the Jubilee Line to increase capacity and reliability from 24 to 27 trains an hour “from July”, with the clear suggestion that the improvements would start from the very beginning of the month.

However, only last week, papers tabled at an internal TfL meeting showed that the new timetable was actually planned to only start on 31st July 2011, in effect a month later than promised.

13 May 2011 - 12:49am

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