Caroline Pidgeon

On Wednesday 10 June, Caroline spoke on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group on a motion about the proposed super-prison in Dagenham.

The proposal came out of the blue for local residents who were led to believe that the London Riverside regeneration area would lead to new housing and local community facilities.

"It was unbelievable that the Government announced this site for a super prison, even though it had not even featured on a list of possible sites obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The local community needs to be properly consulted on this and to decide if a prison should feature at all in the plans to regenerate this site owned by the London Development Agency," commented Caroline Pidgeon AM.

While London Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) Chair, Boris Johnson, refused to travel on the overcrowded, TfL-run, London Overground Barking–Gospel Oak rail service when invited by London Assembly Chair Jennette Arnold, Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Vice-Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, was made of sterner stuff. She travelled with members of the Barking – Gospel Oak Line User Group (BGOLUG) on a crowded morning peak train from Barking last Friday (27th February) in order to see the overcrowded conditions for herself.

In an article for the Lib Dem Voice website, Caroline Pidgeon describes how anomalies in the Oyster card system result in Londoners being overcharged by £500,000 a month when they travel on National Rail services:

This week at City Hall I was accused by Boris Johnson of being a “negative Liberal Democrat” when I dared to question him over some of the problems that have happened as a result of the extension of Oyster Pay as You Go to national rail services across London.

Well I stand by my questioning of the Mayor as there is no doubt that a huge number of Londoners are not getting the best deal that Oyster could deliver. There are serious anomalies in how the system operates, and the full benefits of the technology are simply not being delivered. Most significantly many people using Oyster on the trains, whether they are Londoners or visitors, are being overcharged, sometimes by quite large amounts. This January alone it is estimated that 32,000 passengers were overcharged a total of half a million pounds.

Read the full article here.

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly transport spokesperson, has revealed that each and every Londoner is now owed £5 by embassies that evade paying the Congestion Charge. For the first time ever the total unpaid bill for non-payment of Congestion Charge and Penalty Charge Notices now exceeds £40 million.

Through repeated questioning, Caroline Pidgeon has obtained figures from the Mayor showing that the amount owed by embassies soared during 2009 by more than 40%, with the unpaid bill rising by £1 million every month. At the very start of the 2010 the total unpaid bill from embassies stood at £39 million, compared to an unpaid bill of £26 million at the same time last year.

Commenting on these new figures, Caroline Pidgeon said:
"It is shameful that a minority of embassies continue to evade paying the Congestion Charge. British diplomats respect the law of other countries and it is only right that diplomats do the same in this country.