At the London Assembly, Caroline raised with the Mayor and Met Commissioner the problems with the time taken for the Met to respond to emergency calls - including calls about incidents in London that were diverted to Hampshire Police!
Caroline is calling for the Mayor to go further in defending grassroots football clubs, such as Dulwich Hamlet FC.
Responding to the consultation on the Mayor’s draft Sport Strategy, Caroline highlights how grassroots clubs are often at the centre of local communities, yet often have to fight to retain their grounds against the threat of speculative developers. In recent years Edgware Town, Hendon and Enfield Town football clubs have all lost their historical homes.
As Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Caroline Pidgeon has written to the Mayor expressing great disappointment at the lack of transparency around the delay in opening Crossrail, with board meetings held in secret instead of being forthcoming with the public.
We accept the assurances you have personally given to the Assembly that you did not know the specific details of the delay until two days before the announcement.
After Caroline Pidgeon pressured the Mayor to publish the list of dates to fix London's 33 most dangerous junctions, it has emerged that the Woolwich Road roundabout will not be made safer until 2023.
Caroline said:
“There are very good reasons why the Greenwich A102 junction is now known by local residents as the ‘crossing of death’
The Metropolitan Police are regularly redirecting nighttime 999 calls to other police forces, the Mayor of London has admitted in response to questioning by Caroline Pidgeon. Over June, July and August, the Met diverted 2,820 emergency 999 calls to other police forces to handle.
In response to questioning the Mayor has also admitted:
Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, commenting on the Mayor's announcement that he is starting a new Violence Reduction Unit of specialists in health, police and local government to deliver a public health approach to tackling the causes of violent crime, said:
“This initiative is welcome and should have been adopted long ago.
In September's Mayor's Question Time, Caroline questioned the Mayor on his efforts to ensure London's most dangerous junctions are made safe.
As the news came in that Crossrail services will not launch in December 2018, and will be postponed until autumn 2019, Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, said:
"It is disappointing that the decision to delay the launch of Crossrail has been announced at such late notice. It is scarcely believable that the Mayor, TfL and Crossrail did not know of a likely delay a long time ago and chose not to let Londoners know sooner.
In June's Mayor's Question Time, Caroline again urged the Mayor to commit to consulting on significant changes to bus frequency. It is vital that the voices of the communities these changes affect are heard.
Sadiq Khan’s past promise that he will deliver a substantial tree planting programme for the whole of London is being broken, with his answers to Caroline Pidgeon's questions revealing that Transport for London (TfL) no longer even has a dedicated budget for tree planting along its extensive road network.
The new policy of TfL is in complete contrast to previous years, when hundreds of trees each year were replaced and new trees planted along TfL’s extensive road network.
