Caroline's news

The Thames is still London's forgotten highway

The London Assembly's Transport Committee has published a report highlighting the improvements that still need to be made in order to make full use of the Thames as a resource for transport.

Caroline Pidgeon AM, Chair of the Transport Committee, said:
“While there have been some developments and passenger numbers have grown, it’s frustrating that progress is so slow on expanding a service that has so much potential – particularly for the 2012 Games.

“Our last report described the Thames as London’s forgotten highway and unfortunately in many ways it still is.

RNIB backs campaign for accessible crossings

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is campaigning for all pedestrian crossings in London to be made accessible to people with visual handicaps. At present - as highlighted by Caroline Pidgeon's investigations - there are 347 crossings that still do not meet minimum standards of accessibility.

Caroline commented:
"It is shocking that in the year 2012 so many pedestrian crossings are unsafe for so many people."

"I have long called for the minimum safety standards to be met at every pedestrian crossing across the whole of London. The RNIB campaign has my total support."

You can read more here on the RNIB website.

Mayor still will not give timetable for dangerous junction review

The King's Cross Environment blog covers this week's Mayor's Question Time - where under questioning from Lib Dem London Assembly Leader Caroline Pidgeon, Boris Johnson would give no commitment to a timetable for reviewing the most dangerous junctions for cyclists.

Blogger William Perrin comments:

The Mayor (and also Chair of TfL) is questioned by Caroline Pidgeon AM about his sudden conversion to cycle safety, from 40 minutes in. Caroline Pidgeon AM gently mocks the Mayor’s giant flip flop on a review. But despite repeated questioning the Mayor gives no timetable for his review of dangerous junctions. At 43:30 she tried to pin the Mayor down to specific actions, timetables and commitments from his panicky review – but the Mayor just dodges sideways refusing to give any hints on a time table or guarantees that work will happen following the review.

Read the full article here.

And you can watch the webcast of Mayor's Question Time here on the London Assembly website - Caroline Pidgeon's questions start at around 43:30.

Routemaster admission exposes the Mayor's real record on buses

Commenting on the news that the introduction of Boris Johnson's replacement for the Routemaster bus has again been delayed, Caroline Pidgeon commented:

"We were promised that the new Routemaster bus would be up and running in 2011, but the harsh reality is that just one of these incredibly expensive buses will be on our roads before this summer. This latest admission exposes once and for all Boris Johnson's real record on bus services.

Greenland Pier boat service campaign - update

Local Liberal Democrat Councillors Lisa Rajan, David Hubber, Paul Noblet, Simon Hughes MP and myself have been inundated with emails from concerned passengers in Surrey Docks about the future of Greenland Pier. This also affects people who use the service and live just over in Lewisham.

We held a meeting on Monday morning with Gill Davies, Southwark Council's Director of Environment and Leisure. Our main aim for the meeting was to get Southwark Council to stop the temporary closure of the pier on 28th February, and instead keep it open for the Thames Clippers boats to use. We know how vital and valued the commuter boat service is and how many people rely on it. We also wanted to ask for a temporary pontoon to be installed if the existing one really does need to be removed for repairs.

We divided the pier issue into two parts - the immediate future, following the official Notice to Quit served on Thames Clippers, and the longer term future of the pier.

As far as the immediate situation is concerned, the Notice to Thames Clippers was, we were told, a legal requirement to enable the pier to be inspected and repaired as necessary. Thames Clippers should be granted a temporary licence to enable them to continue to use the pier until such time as it may be removed temporarily for any works. We have stressed that there should be no discontinuance of the service on 28 February, nor until it is essential for the pier to be closed, and we were led to believe that this would be the case. We also asked that users should be given one month's notice before the pontoon is actually removed.

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