As temperatures reached over 30 degrees Celsius inside the poorly cooled new Routemaster replacement buses, Caroline Pidgeon told the Evening Standard:
"After spending a fortune of public money and after extensive testing the public should not have to put up with a cauldron on wheels.
"The Mayor and TfL should stop making excuses and ensure that such basic problems are sorted out as a matter of urgency."
The London Assembly today urged Mayor Boris Johnson to halt his plans to dilute police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and recklessly close police front counters across London.
The Assembly's motion calls on the Mayor to retain the existing neighbourhood policing model of a dedicated sergeant, supported by two Constables and three Police Community Support Officers, allocated to each ward in London.
Caroline Pidgeon AM, who seconded the motion, said:
“Londoners value their local police stations and the local, recognisable police teams dedicated to serving their ward. Shutting up cop shops to public access and destroying the local policing model risks setting policing back more than a decade and separating the police from their communities.”
Caroline Pidgeon AM recently visited the Olympic Park to meet with the London Legacy Development Corporation and to see first hand the plans for new housing and the conversion of the existing housing in East Village, the flats used by athletes during the 2012 Games.
"It was good to see so much progress and to hear the plans going forward. I would however like to see a lot more social and genuinely affordable housing in the next phases of housing" commented Caroline.
Caroline Pidgeon AM, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on the Mayor’s response today to her questions about the future of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) across London, where he failed to recognise that there would be a reduction in dedicated police officers for each safer neighbourhood team, said:
“The Mayor should come clean with Londoners and admit that he is decimating the current and successful model for safer neighbourhood teams.
Caroline joined Brian Paddick and Pauline Pearce, out on the campaign trail in Hackney on 1st April.
Pauline is known as the Hackney Heroine after tackling the rioters in Hackney last August.
She is standing to be a councillor in Hackney.
The London Liberal Democrats toured a range of London boroughs on Wednesday 30th March in a campaign bus to launch their fares package for Londoners.
The Fairer Fares package proposes Six Ways To Save, one of which is a One Hour Bus Ticket that will allow people to hop-on and hop-off buses as many times as needed within one hour, paying only one single fare.
The scheme works successfully in several European cities ensuring that multiple journeys on one of the most popular forms of transport are kept as low as possible. From the moment an Oyster card is touched, or a paper ticket is printed, passengers would have 60 minutes in which to make additional journeys without any extra cost.
2011 has seen far too many cycle accidents and deaths on our roads.
Caroline continues to campaign for safer roads for cyclists and pedestrians and her most recent questions to the Mayor which have been answered just before Christmas can be seen below.
For more information about cycling issues across London do also take a look at the excellent London Cycling Campaign website.
Writing for the London24 website, Caroline Pidgeon addresses what needs to be done to make cycling in London safe:
Firstly, we must recognise that the primary cause of cycle fatalities is lorries colliding with cyclists.
The Mayor has announced some limited proposals, including training advice for cyclists, but it is only a start.
The London Assembly Transport Committee has published a report in response to TfL’s new proposals on transport accessibility, showing that step-free access and other accessibility measures fall far short of the growing need for them, with half of bus stops, two thirds of rail stations, and three quarters of tube stations, not fully accessible to people with limited mobility.
The report argues for a range of measures, including low-cost steps such as allowing manual ramps, upgrading pedestrian crossings, providing better training for bus drivers, and improving online and paper maps.
Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on Boris Johnson’s fare proposals for 2012, which he confirmed today will be set at RPI plus 2 per cent, said:
“This is the fourth year of fare misery that Londoners will face under Boris Johnson.
“He has already hit Londoners hard by hiking up bus fares from 90 pence to £1.30 for a single fare since he arrived at City Hall. Today’s further rise will really hit hard many people, especially those on low incomes.
“Boris Johnson has failed to tackle effective action to tackle fare evasion or cut waste which is widespread throughout TfL. If the Mayor got on top of these issues there would be no need for such severe fare rises, especially for low income Londoners.