Caroline Pidgeon celebrated the opening of a new flower stall on 14th April at the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. Local resident Jean Reardon has re-trained as a florist, achieving her City and Guilds qualification from Southwark College. Seeking business advice from local organisations, she has now set up her very own flower stall in the shopping centre called ‘Holly’s Flowers’.
London Liberal Democrats have launched their 2008 Manifesto, “Contract with London”. The Contract for London was launched by Vincent Cable MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London and Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen Lawrence on the night he was murdered.
Plans to strip Streatham of its dedicated police force have been slated by local Liberal Democrats. News of the plan to merge the Streatham and Norwood sub-command with Brixton has emerged, following the revelation that the police want to close their main station in Streatham High Road.
Lambeth and Southwark GLA candidate Caroline Pidgeon commented: "For Streatham to lose its police station is bad enough, but it is another matter altogether for the area to lose its own police force, with its own senior police officers."
Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone's latest transport plans have been slammed for scarcely mentioning our part of South London. Livingstone has launched a 14-page transport manifesto, but key schemes for our area like the Cross River Tram and East London Line Extension rate just a single mention. Neither has secured full funding from Labour.
Labour politicians are rushing to get local police stations closed, even before consultation on their future has been completed. The Greater London Assembly is seeking views on whether Rotherhithe, Streatham, East Dulwich, Cavendish Road (Clapham) and Camberwell police stations should go. But Lambeth and Southwark's Labour London Assembly Member has already backed closure - before her own constituents got a chance to have a say.
