Caroline's news

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on today’s announcement that Transport for London, will permanently permit bicycles on off-peak Docklands Light Railway trains said:

“This is an incredibly welcome decision. I am not surprised at all that the recent trial allowing non-folding bicycles on the DLR has been a success as there was no real argument to support the total prohibition of bikes being allowed on the DLR.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams across the capital are not meeting Londonwide standards for accessibility according to a new report published today by Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group.

Despite opposition from the Conservatives, the London Assembly has voted to reaffirm its opposition to the expansion of Heathrow Airport and suggest that more use could be made of spare capacity at other airports serving the South East. It was reacting to the interim report published by Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission and the options proposed for expanding Heathrow and Gatwick.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, who proposed the motion, said: “I am really disappointed to see Heathrow back on the table. Airport capacity in London is currently under-used, in fact some London airports have more than half of their runway slots free. Rather than inflict further misery on the residents of West London, the Davies Commission should rule out expansion of Heathrow and focus on better use of capacity at other South East airports.”

Official cycle hire figures published today show that there were 1,473,824 (1.5 million) fewer people using the bikes in 2013 than during the previous year. The figures show that 2013 saw a 15% fall in people hiring bikes compared to 2012.

The London Datastore statistics further reveal that during 2013 there was a total of nine months with less people using the bikes than during 2012, including eight months in a row since May 2013, confirming that the fall is a clear trend and not due to any exceptional factors.

Following months of campaigning by local Liberal Democrat Councillor Alison Hopkins and the local Lib Dem Team including Sarah Teather MP, a new pedestrian crossing will be installed on the busy A5.

Caroline joined campaigners in 2012 looking at this very dangerous road and saw clearly the need for an urgent pedestrian crossing to stop people taking their lives into their own hands trying to get from one side of the road to another.