Campaigning articles

Caroline recently visited the junction of Tavistock Place and Marchmont Street with local campaigner Lee Baker and Local Residents’ Association Chair Ricci de Freitas, to look at how dangerous the road layout had become.

The junction had been redesigned by Transport for London, resulting in a very strange cycle lane, with arrows going in all directions at one point, and pedestrian crossings not where people actually cross the road.

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.

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Transport Spokesperson, commenting on today’s National Audit Office report into the failure of Metronet, said:

“This is simply a devastating report for the architect of the Public Private Partnership contract – Gordon Brown.

“It is unforgivable that as much as £410 million of taxpayer’s money has been wasted. The PPP deal that was forced on Londoners by Gordon Brown has been totally exposed as a bad deal for both taxpayers and for passengers.

Finally, work has begun to improve the junction between Pentonville Road and Penton Rise, a notorious accident blackspot. This work begins eight months after Lib Dem Councillor George Allan and Lib Dem Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon handed a petition to the Major of London last year calling for vital improvements to the roads around the King's Cross area, including Penton Rise.

Originally, work was due to begin in January 2009, but was delayed by TfL three times, causing growing frustration and growing Lib Dem pressure on the London Mayor to act. Since the last deadline set by TfL for April 2009 there have been a further three accidents. Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson Bridget Fox responded to these collisions stating: 'Boris talks a lot about safety, but what we need at Penton Rise is action!'