Caroline's news

The Evening Standard has a report on the £13,500 spent by the Greater London Authority to furnish a "business lounge" inside City Hall.

Caroline Pidgeon told the Standard:

This expenditure clearly reveals some very poor policies being adopted at City Hall under Boris Johnson.

Given that every Londoner is being asked to tighten their belt, how can the GLA even dream of spending taxpayers' money on bar stools costing £220 each or chairs at almost £900?

I question whether ridiculously expensive furniture and a ghastly new carpet are necessary to encourage people to work flexibly. This is simply a waste of public money.

Read the full story here.

Caroline joined Terry Curtis on Saturday out and about in Tulse Hill meeting local people and hearing their issues and concerns. Terry Curtis has been selected to stand in the Council By-Election on 1st July. Terry has lived in Tulse Hill for over 50 years, chairs the local police Safer Neighbourhood Panel and represents local tenants and leaseholders as Chair of the St Martin's Estate Board, where he lives.

“It was super to meet local people with Terry Curtis, who is so well known in the area. We received a really warm welcome on the doorstep and were able to discuss issues such as traffic calming and local policing” commented Caroline.

Shepherd's Bush blogger Chris Underwood returns to the story of the shoddy works to the site of Shepherd's Bush Market, which is owned by Transport for London.

Caroline Pidgeon has been keeping up the pressure on the Mayor to get these fixed, but there has still been no action.

On Thursday 10 June Caroline joined other Assembly Members on a visit to meet residents who live near City Airport to hear their concerns about noise and pollution. The members then went and visited City Airport to talk to their Chief Executive and team about their plans and ways they work with the community.

"It was interesting to see around City Airport and to talk to local people about the impact it has on their lives. It is clear that all noise from airplanes using different airports needs to be mapped together in one place so that we can really understand the noise impact of London's airports on different parts of the capital," commented Caroline Pidgeon.

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group leader and spokesperson on transport commenting on Transport for London's plans to lift previous restrictions on information relating to London's Tube, buses and river services, said:

"This decision has my total backing. By lifting restrictions on such useful information we can now unleash the huge talent and imagination that exists amongst London's huge number of web developers. This decision will now allow innovation and exciting developments to take place in the provision of travel information. Releasing data really does help to release people."

You can read more information from TfL on the data available.

And Lib Dem blogger Mark Pack covers the story at Liberal Democrat Voice.

Also, this site shows a great use of the data, with a live map showing where every tube train is on the network. The BBC has a story here about this site.