Caroline's news

The Mayor has declared his intention to make 2011 the ‘year of walking’ and allocated millions of pounds to the cause, but will his proposals see more Londoners making their journeys on foot?

Caroline Pidgeon AM will lead an investigation on behalf of the Assembly’s Transport Committee to assess the effectiveness of current plans to get people walking and look at what more could be done.

Almost a quarter of all journeys in the capital are made on foot – nearly 6 million trips every day – making up nearly a third of the total time Londoners spend travelling. The Mayor’s Transport Strategy states that he wants to see the share of all journeys made on foot increase to 25 per cent by 2031 – an extra million journeys a day.

To help meet this target, the Mayor and Transport for London have allocated over £200 million over the next three years to ‘Better Streets’ - which includes schemes ranging from de-cluttering streets to pedestrianisation - and ‘Better Green and Water Spaces’ to improve access to London’s parks, rivers and canals.

Caroline Pidgeon AM said:
“The Mayor wants 2011 to be the ‘year of walking’ but to encourage more Londoners to make their journeys on foot he will have to carefully tailor his proposals and investment.

Caroline Pidgeon AM joined Brent Liberal Democrats at their summer barbecue in Kingsbury on Sunday 18th July. Caroline was invited by Leader of the Lib Dem Group Cllr Paul Lorber and Deputy Leader Cllr Daniel Brown, with whom she worked in the 1990s.

Caroline Pidgeon AM visited Camden on Sunday 18th July to help David Bouchier in the Frognal and Fitzjohns by-election.

“It was fantastic to be out and about talking to local residents about a wide range of local issues such as planning concerns, where some people are expanding their homes by going down into the foundations, and the state of the economy nationally.

“David lives locally and knows Belsize, Frognal and Hampstead Village like the back of his hand. I hope local residents will give him their support to be a strong local voice for Frog 'n' Fitz ward” commented Caroline.

Caroline Pidgeon, commenting to the Evening Standard, has sharply criticised the Mayor's plans to drastically reduce ticket office services at Tube stations, costing up to 450 jobs and leaving many stations with ticket office staffing for most of the day.

Caroline said:

The Mayor was elected on a clear commitment to keep ticket offices open. His plans to have many closed for most of the day flies in the face of his election commitment. This is an absolute sham of a consultation. If the Mayor really thinks he is consulting Londoners he obviously needs to look up what the word actually means in the dictionary.

You can read the full story at the Evening Standard here.

Several members of Enfield Liberal Democrats came down to watch Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall on Wednesday 14th July.

The group heard Lib Dem members ask the mayor about his planned policy for fares next year on public transport, ticket office closures and the future of the Oystercard.