City Hall

Budget Consultation Begins

2010-01-07T20:03:00.003Z

This morning Boris appeared at the Budget and Performance Committee to take questions about his 2010/11 budget proposals. Chaired by John Biggs, the meeting was good natured, perhaps reflecting optimism at the start of what promises to be an eventful year.

Precept Frozen Again

The headline is that the council tax precept is to be frozen at zero for the second year running. It's not just about money - as Lib Dem leader Mike Tuffrey admitted there is an equality aspect too, because council tax places a disproportionate burden on some Londoners. Pensioners on fixed incomes are particularly affected.

Boris was pleased to announce a saving of £55 million, with band D council tax now £18 less than it would have been under the previous mayor's spending plans. City Hall staffing had been reduced by around 180 posts following the Organising For Delivery review conducted in his first year.

Last year the Assembly passed a motion welcoming the council tax freeze, with Labour support. They also supported Ken Livingstone who raised the precept by over 150% during his two terms, so their overall position is unclear. John Biggs was keeping his powder dry this morning, giving no sign of Labour's plans for this year.

The Case For London

Boris was characteristically robust in his support for Crossrail. He pointed out that cancelling the project would send a very negative signal about London's recovery and would save a relatively small amount of cash. With the election approaching and large spending cuts inevitable, the Mayor will be lobbying both the main parties to secure support for Crossrail. Dealing with a Parliament where many Northern MPs feel that London gets a disproportionate share of investment can be challenging - as I recall from my own appearance at the Transport Select Committee following the Metronet collapse.

On the troubled PPP front history is repeating itself, with Tubelines now in conflict with London Underground over payments. The PPP arbiter has ruled that LU should pay £400 million more than they estimated but this sum still falls well short of Tubelines' demands. Potentially the passengers could find themselves picking up the extra costs of Gordon Brown's imposed scheme. Boris will be trying to secure the money from government funds.

Despite subsidy reductions, Boris was keen not to cut the bus network. He referred to his decision last year to save the bus route serving Havering-Atte-Bower, a lifeline particularly in the current snowy weather, however not all the bus routes introduced under Ken Livingstone's reign have proved popular and there may be an opportunity to review some of these routes if the network needs to be pruned.

The Process

The Committee will now draw up its response to the budget consultation. As this has to be agreed by all parties it is likely to contain requests for more detailed information rather than political fireworks.

The proposals will then be debated at a meeting of the full Assembly, with Boris answering questions. Alternative proposals may be tabled - only the Lib Dems and the Greens did this last year - and voted on. The budget itself only requires the support of a third of the Assembly's 25 members to pass unamended,

Boris Comes To Ilford

2010-01-06T13:05:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone - I hope that 2010 brings you all you desire (in the case of political opponents almost all you desire).

And we are starting with some excitement as Boris is visiting Redbridge for one of his popular public meetings. This time the debate will focus on improving the environment both locally and globally. With the Mayor's environment strategies under review there should be plenty to talk about.

Joining Boris on the panel will be:

Isabel Dedring, the Mayor's environment advisor.
Cllr Keith Prince, leader of Redbridge Council.
Nick Crane, CPRE.
Lucy Siegle, environment correspondent at The Observer.

And I will be chairing the event.

The meeting takes place on Monday 18th January, at the Kenneth More Theatre in Ilford. Proceedings commence at 7pm and conclude at 8:30pm.

Tickets are free from the theatre box office on 020 8553 4466 and further details can be obtained at http://www.london.gov.uk/ . There is room for 500 people in the venue so this promises to be a lively and informative session.

Barkingside Councillors Go Online

2009-12-06T18:35:00.004Z

The spread of internet campaigning continues, and the most recent team to go online are the Conservative Action Team for Barkingside. You can catch up with Cllr Keith Prince, Cllr Ashley Kissin and Mrs Tania Solomon at http://www.barkingsideaction.com/ .

Boris in Ilford

2009-12-02T16:37:00.002Z

This morning Boris visited Ilford Fire Station to switch on the new solar panels which are set to provide a large part of the power the station needs.

GLA Leads The Way

The station's energy overhaul has enabled it to save over 40% of its carbon emissions. A further nine fire stations, ten police stations and 22 TfL buildings have made changes allowing them to save on average 27% of their carbon emissions - and even more importantly, over one million pounds from the public sector fuel bill. Another 58 buildings are scheduled for modification but unfortunately many of the older fire and police stations do not lend themselves to the programme. Eight percent of London's emissions come from public buildings so there is considerable scope to make further savings. The NHS has expressed an interest in adopting the LDA led project for their buildings.

And of course saving fuel saves money...

Ilford High Road

On the walk back to the station the Mayor was joined by local councillors and Toby Boutle, the Conservative candidate for Ilford South. The reception from locals was overwhelmingly positive, belying Labour claims that 'the honeymoon is over'.

Boris visited several small businesses and was pleased to hear that in their experience, customer numbers were rising despite Labour's recession. The London economy has been more robust than the national position and it is good to see that the effect has spread to outer London as well as the centre.

The Mayor also encountered a group from the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, protesting about the abandonment of lift works at Newbury Park. TfL have left the Central Line station in a terrible mess and just at a time when passenger numbers are rising due to the regular weekend closures of the main line to Liverpool Street. we have transport questions next week and I will be seeking some answers from Boris...

Fire Trends - and Boats

2009-11-17T08:03:00.003Z

The Fire Authority's Performance Management and Community Safety Panel met yesterday afternoon. Interesting reports concerning trends and risks often get an airing here. There were a couple of 'burning issues' this time:

Weather and Risk

Some of this seems like common sense, but extreme weather conditions do lead to a rise in incidents for the brigade to attend:

Extreme cold causes frozen pipes to burst or overflow, leading to an increase of flooding incidents.

High temperatures can cause lifts to break down, leading to a larger number of calls to people trapped in lifts.

Hot, dry periods lead to an increase in open land fires, particularly a problem in outer London.

Strong winds, most often experienced in the autumn, lead to more calls to make safe damaged buildings and structures.

Storms with heavy rainfall cause unpredictable cases of localised flooding, usually as a result of inadequate drainage.

And of course some occasions and events cause a peak in call outs. The most obvious is bonfire night, and where this falls in the middle of the week - like this year - the incidents occur on adjacent Saturday nights as well.

Fireboats

The Brigade operates two fireboats from a floating fire station at Lambeth. The boats are slower than those used by other emergency services but they have fire fighting pumps and a shallow hull which allows them to operate right up to the river bank. They work closely with the police, RNLI and Port of London Authority rescue boats.

Last year the fireboats attended 49 fires and 53 false alarms but the majority of their work - 164 callouts - was classified as 'special services', in effect rescues which don't involve fires. Special services include sinking or drifting boats, cars in the river, people falling in the river or trapped in the tidal mud, people threatening to jump from bridges and - sadly - the retrieval of bodies from the water.

At one time the fireboats had to deal with industrial and warehouse fires but with the transformation of the river banks and the growth of residential properties, the fire threat has receded. Most of the new properties are accessible by land and fire engines can often reach them more swiftly than the boats.

Nevertheless, the fireboats and their crews still play an essential part in keeping the Thames safe.

Ambush at the Academy

2009-11-10T09:02:00.003Z

Over a thousand people attended last nights Question Time, the third such experience for Boris Johnson and assembly Members elected in 2008.

The venue was the O2 Academy in Brixton, more often the scene of concerts and sell out music performances. The room was so large that it was difficult to see people at the back and the acoustics on stage were truly awful. We were reduced to lip reading colleagues on the large screen as we certainly couldn't hear what they were saying.

Local Member Val Shawcross did a good job of chairing a session that became unruly at times, although it wasn't as disorderly as the last session in Bethnal Green. A large contingent of 'Save the South London Line' protestors turned up, some wearing campaign T shirts, and Val can perhaps be forgiven for squeezing every last drop of publicity out of their attendance, calling transport chairman Caroline Pidgeon to lay into the mayor over his 'lack of action'.

The tenants of Offley Works also made a return, demanding public money to keep their dance studio open. James Cleverly made an effort to explain the LDA's position and the limits on the budget, but the hecklers demonstrated that they weren't really interested in the answer. At Bethnal Green some members thought the Offley people were admirably feisty but their behaviour last night probably did their case more harm than good.

Policing

In response to a question about his recent crime fighting episode, Boris supported Londoners stepping in to prevent crime - using their judgement and proportionate force of course - and he hoped that the police would support public spirited individuals. Policing supremo, Kit Malthouse was nodding during these comments, which is a good sign.

The claim by female MPs that public transport is too dangerous for them to use at night was also given short shrift. Many other female - and male - workers commute late at night and they don't require a second home in town. Public transport is relatively safe but it is the walk home from the station or bus stop where danger is greatest.

The mayor reassured Londoners that recent comparisons with 'The Wire' were groundless. London's murder rate is less than a tenth of the rate in Baltimore where the popular TV series is based.

In response to the question 'Should police take more action against drug dealers?' the audience voted 82% in favour and 18% against. A surprisingly high number turning down a reasonable proposition. The borough commander was present and hopefully he has taken note.

Transport

The South London Line campaigners made their presence felt at this point and there were also complaints about the fare rises. Val obligingly cued up Assembly Members from the three opposition parties to attack the mayor in succession. The myth that the fare gap could be plugged by retaining the congestion charge Western Extension and emissions based vehicle charging had clearly gained traction.

Cyclists also raised questions about safety on the roads. One poor girl had been run over by a dustcart, another had been hit by a bus. Boris encouraged cyclists to stop in front of vehicles at junctions, where they could be seen, rather than tucking themselves away in the left hand gutter. The first girl said she was lucky to be alive and would not be cycling in London again, and I can't blame her.

Val's question concluding this section was 'Do you support the removal of the Western Extension?' to which 66% responded 'no' and 34% said 'yes'. As the WEZ doesn't cover Brixton, all this really demonstrated was that people support taxes as long as someone else is paying them - twelve years of New Labour were based on that premise.

Environment

This section of the meeting was hijacked by the Offley Works protestors so the environment didn't get much of an outing at Brixton. Val concluded with the question 'Should the mayor impose housing targets on London boroughs?' to which 76% said 'yes' and 24% said 'no'. I suspect the answer would have been very different in Havering or Redbridge.

Olympics

Several people suggested that the Olympics was a waste of money and with even Tessa Jowell claiming that the bid looked less attractive once the recession had bitten, this view is gaining ground. Having won the bid it's a bit difficult to renege on it now so we are faced with soldiering on towards the fateful 2012 deadline, whilst trying to rally enthusiasm during tough times. Labour have spotted a potential source of disaffection and Val highlighted it by asking 'Should there be discount tickets for Londoners?' with 79% agreeing and 21% in disagreement.

The meeting tailed off with several general questions but people were already leaving the hall. At the end some of the audience formed a scrum to meet Boris who still retains his media star popularity. The honeymoon is over, particularly amongst public sector opinion formers, but a lot of voters warm to the mayor personally and feel he is doing a good job in trying circumstances.

The Members also got to speak to some of the audience. One smiling man shook me by the hand 'Thank you for all your support, you're doing a great job Mr Biggs.'...

Spotlight on Heathrow

2009-11-05T14:43:00.002Z

This morning the Environment Committee took evidence from experts on the controversial Heathrow third runway proposal. In the green corner were Cllr Barbara Reid representing the M2 group of councils and John Stewart from HACAN. In the commercial corner were BAAs directors of corporate responsibility and airport communications.

Noise

Noise was the main concern for members. The government use 2002 as the baseline year for measuring trends but as this was the last year of Concorde's operation there is concern that successive years do not compare fairly. Concorde was a very noisy aircraft, with an effect equal to 120 Boeing 757s, so measuring against 2002 leaves room for more flights without compromising the headline downward trend.

Use of the 57 decibel contour was also challenged as this defined an area which didn't include Putney and Fulham - places where aircraft noise levels generate many complaints. Less than 300,000 people fall within the contour but HACAN estimate that more than twice that number are affected.

BAA highlighted the phasing out of noisy, polluting planes, including Concorde, which would ensure less noise pollution in future.

Air Quality

Witnesses from the Environment Agency admitted that the 2010 air quality targets for the UK would be failed, resulting in large fines for the Government. BAA explained the measures they were taking to reduce pollution.

At Heathrow much of the pollution comes from vehicles taking passengers and workers to the airport. BAA were working to encourage green vehicles within the airport perimeter and had measures in place to encourage public transport use. 41% of journeys to the airport used public transport and this was one of the highest figures in Europe. The committee were still concerned that more could be done and suggested lowering the Heathrow Express fares to encourage more passengers. BAA were also investing in Crossrail and funding the Heathrow Express.

Pollution from aircraft would reduce with the arrival of cleaner and more efficient engines.

Global Impact

John Stewart reassured us that he was not opposed to the airport but that he wanted to see short haul flights phased out and replaced by high speed rail. This would create capacity for the existing runways to accommodate more long haul flights without expanding overall capacity.

However two thirds of emissions come from long haul flights and an increase in these might actually create more pollution. Furthermore, reducing capacity at the Heathrow hub might just encourage passengers to use the airports at Paris or Amsterdam instead. This would harm London's economy without mitigating damage to the environment.

Peoples' Question Time

2009-11-04T17:13:00.004Z

The next PQT featuring the Mayor and Assembly Members will take place in Brixton on Monday evening. The venue is the O2 Academy, 211 Stockwell Road, SW9 9SL. This meeting gives the public an opportunity to put questions to Boris Johnson and members of the Assembly.

The session will start at 7.00pm (doors open 6.00pm) and end at 9.00pm. It will be chaired by Val Shawcross, the Labour Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark.

Full details are available online at http://www.london.gov.uk/ or alternatively the event can be heard on LBC - http://www.lbc.co.uk/ .

This promises to be a lively night, if it is anything like the Bethnal Green meeting earlier this year. I will provide a write up from my own perspective after the event...

Justice Seen to be Done

2009-11-03T11:36:00.002Z

Filling in at the budget monitoring sub committee this morning. We took evidence from the police and fire services, reviewing their first quarter financial management.

The police were represented by Paul James from their finance team who told us that there had been two events that proved to be an unexpected drain on the police budget. The first was the Tamil demonstration outside Parliament which would be funded from reserves. The second was the G20 demonstration in the City of London. Reimbursement of over £3 million was being sought from the Home Office to cover the cost of diplomatic protection and security for the summit.

Savings were also anticipated, in particular from the introduction of virtual courts.

The pilot scheme sees 15 police stations across South London connected to Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court so that hearings can take place remotely, saving the cost of ferrying the suspects to court in a police van. Whilst most cases could be dealt with this way the pilot is focussed on the initial hearings that precede full trials. Potentially the time from charging a suspect to a court appearance can be reduced to three hours, cutting through the backlog of cases and saving court time.

Justice is done and seen to be done. There is even the theoretical possibility of making the on line exchanges publicly available although this would require primary legislation and the Met wisely refused to be drawn into this debate.

Cleaning The Air

2009-10-30T08:22:00.002Z

On Thursday afternoon the Environment Committee took evidence on the mayor's draft Air Quality Strategy. The main witness was Environment Adviser Isabel Dedring who is well liked and respected across the political spectrum at City Hall. Inevitably the discussion focused on the Low Emission Zone and plans to clean up diesel vehicles in the capital.

Where?

Although the Low Emission Zone covers the whole of the Greater London Area - give or take some unusual boundary quirks - the main problem is in the centre of town. There are pollution hotspots at major road junctions - Tower Hill, Marble Arch, Euston Road, Trafalgar Square and all along the Victoria Embankment. Heathrow Airport clearly shows up on the pollution map, but strangely there is no corresponding hotspot at London City Airport, although an increase in the number of jets may create one in future.

Against this evidence, I expressed surprise that successive additions to the LEZ restrictions would apply in outer London. Harefield, Enfield, Bromley and Havering all register the lowest levels of air pollution, yet owners of agricultural vehicles, motorised horse boxes and mini buses will all have to make expensive alterations to their vehicles, or even replace them, although those vehicles never go near the polluted areas. This seems unfair and - not surprisingly - I'm getting complaints from residents.

Particulates

Also known as PM10 emissions, these form a fine micro dust in the air we breathe and can irritate the lungs, particularly affecting asthma sufferers. The top three sources of PM10s in London are:

Black Taxi exhausts

Light goods vehicle exhausts

Tyre and brake wear from private cars

The move from petrol to diesel - encouraged by fuel prices and tax incentives - has led to more particulates whilst reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As particulates are more harmful than CO2 the tax regime looks perverse in large cities like London.

The strategy targets goods vehicles and black cabs but Isabel admitted that the particulate traps fitted to cabs had been less effective than predicted in many cases. I remember this being a hotly contested issue a couple of years ago when I raised cabbies' concerns with Livingstone. The Public Carriage Office did some tests which proved the modifications worked, Livingstone accused me of stirring up trouble and the whole thing was forgotten. It seems that there was a problem after all...

Nitrogen Oxides

The main polluter is nitrogen dioxide, a brown gas which is poisonous and has greater global warming effects than carbon dioxide, but the definition also includes nitrous oxide which is unstable and converts to nitrogen dioxide over time by combining with naturally occurring oxygen.

The three biggest polluters in London are:

Domestic gas boilers

Heavy goods vehicle exhausts

Private car exhausts

The new particulate traps being introduced for buses and HGVs also aim to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

The domestic boilers are a different problem, requiring planning law changes and retrofits. Decentralised power generation - meaning small power plants closer to homes - also has the potential to increase nitrogen oxide pollution. It is acknowledged that biomass boilers, which are included in many environmentally friendly developments, are more polluting than gas. When it comes to saving the world and cleaning London's air there are no easy choices and some of the solutions are contradictory.

BNP On Question Time

2009-10-23T10:28:00.005+01:00

I watched Nick Griffin on Question Time last night, no doubt along with many others who had tuned in to see what the fuss was about.

Of the other four panellists I was most impressed with Bonnie Greer and Sayeeda Warsi. I hadn't seen Bonnie before and I thought she demonstrated a depth of knowledge and good sense on some historical matters, and she maintained her good humour despite having to sit next to Griffin - I assume the three politicians refused to do so. I was with Sayeeda in Bosnia and she is one tough cookie, as she demonstrated on the show, giving better than she got. Her condemnation of the government for creating the ideal environment for the BNP to grow was particularly telling and I was impressed by her strong defence of moderate Islam. We could do with seeing more Muslims like Sayeeda on television and fewer of the extremists who often attract coverage.

Chris Huhne was also good - worryingly so for Clegg, I imagine - although he was not credible when he was asked what the Lib Dems would do about immigration from within Europe. Jack Straw struggled to defend the government's record on immigration and community cohesion. The government minister is usually the hate figure for the audience, for once this was not the case, but he still came across as strident at times.

Griffin was clearly revelling in his most hated man in Britain status, playing up to some of the BNP stereotypes. He had difficulty justifying his previous quotes - not surprisingly - and went off into loopy conspiracy theory territory on a couple of occasions.

Many of the audience also came out of this well. They were decent people with real questions, not the shouty counter demonstration that they could easily have been. I was particularly taken with an articulate asian man who defended his love for Britain and asked where the BNP proposed to deport him to. Our country - and particularly our city - needs good, committed people like this and the colour of their skin or their religious beliefs should be irrelevant.

I was very disappointed that most of the session focused on the BNP, with Griffin's personal history debated repeatedly as if it was the most important news of the day. Outside the bubble of the studio we have a postal strike, a conflict in Afghanistan and an expenses scandal, yet the only non BNP discussion related to Anne Moir's article about Stephen Gately and the panellists swiftly drifted back to the subject of.... the BNP.

BBC News stated that, as the beneficiary of a significant vote - Griffin was entitled to occasional appearances on Question Time, which suggests that they might invite him back. If this does happen, I hope the debate will range more widely than it did this time. The BNP are comfortable talking about themselves but when they are asked to comment on the big political issues their inadequacy shines through...

Redbridge Transport Liaison Committee

2009-10-20T11:23:00.003+01:00

The committee met last night at Ilford Town Hall. Cllr Ashley Kissin was elected chairman and ran an efficient meeting, helped on this occasion by a lack of public contributions.

Forest Road

Aldborough Cllrs Loraine Sladden and Vanessa Cole turned up to make the case for a new bus route along Forest Road. The Central Line bridge precludes the use of double deckers so the choice of services that could be diverted or extended is limited. Representatives from London Buses doubt that there is sufficient demand on the basis of the low number of residents in Forest Road, but this is not the full story.

Forest Road has seen an increase in the number and quality of attractions along its length. Most notably, Boris Johnson recently opened the new cycling track at Hog Hill. Obviously most users will be able to cycle to this venue but the track is quite demanding - I can attest to this personally - with steep gradients, so visitors need to conserve their energy. The Mayor also allocated £400,000 to improve Fairlop Waters earlier this year and the facilities at Hainault Forest have also been upgraded. Add to those the desire to reduce car use by workers at the Hainault industrial estate and there might well be sufficient demand for a low frequency service.

King Georges Hospital

Concerns were expressed about the adequacy of bus services to Redbridge's main hospital. In particular the 365 which runs from Ilford via Gants Hill is often overcrowded in the morning, a situation made worse by demand for travel to Redbridge College. Councillors were very worried that the NHS proposal to focus GP services on just four polyclinics would increase the load on the hospital yet further. London Buses assured us that they are now talking to the NHS about the routes they will need to introduce - better late than never...

462 Bus

I raised concerns about this route running early. London Buses state that their services may run up to two minutes early and up to five minutes late and still be considered on time. The vehicles are tracked using ibus technology and held at stops to regulate the service. They can't wait too long because a bus occupying a stop for more than three minutes is deemed to have parked and can be issues with a ticket - you learn something new at every meeting. Early running had exceeded two minutes on several occasions and Arrive had disciplined two drivers for this.

Gants Hill

The good news is that following an agreement enabling the water companies to work alongside TfL's contractors, the project is back on target and due to complete according to the original timetable in late 2010. In November 2009 the work on the island will be complete and two lanes will be reinstated on the roundabout. Restrictions will then apply at each exit in turn as the contractors work their way clockwise, installing crossings and signals.

I met with local businesses on Wednesday night and it is clear that the disruption is threatening the existence of some shops. TfL undertook to do everything they could to minimise the impact.

Pictures!

2009-10-18T19:31:00.002+01:00

They are back!

Several months ago my computer caught a virus from Facebook which wiped out all the hard disk, including my photo library. Today I spent some time retrieving the best pictures and retrospectively illustrating some of the recent pieces.

Enjoy!

End of the Road?

2009-10-16T15:49:00.004+01:00

Rumours have been kicking around for several days concerning supposed secret conservative plans to abolish the London Assembly and replace it with a committee of London borough leaders. The proposal originated with Conservative Thinkers - although you don't need to be much of a thinker to recycle a policy that was first mooted a decade ago - and has been 'exposed' by Tribune magazine. The Evening Standard covers it today and it is being debated over at Tory Troll and on Conservative Home, with fairly predictable comments in both places.

Support has been expressed by Hammersmith & Fulham leader Stephen Greenhalgh, who I suspect would do a fine job of scrutiny as part of a leaders' committee. Other council leaders may not have the time, indeed some struggle to control and reform their own backyards.

My colleague Andrew Boff has also expressed some support for the idea. This may seem strange but it is understandable in the light of the strategy of the Labour, Liberal and Green parties to deny the eleven strong Conservative group a proportional share of committee chairs. I can well understand some members seeing little point in an organisation that limits their participation.

I don't support abolition but I do think reform is essential in a number of areas:

Powers

The Act that set up London government created a strong mayor and a relatively weak assembly. Subsequently, the mayor's powers have been increased but the assembly remains the same, so here are three suggestions:

1. At present the budget can be passed by only a third of the assembly voting in favour. Not surprisingly, it has never been rejected or amended in nine years. Raise the bar by requiring an absolute majority.

2. There is currently no democratic check on the mayor's strategies. The London Plan, Transport Plan and Economic Development Strategy should all require approval by a majority of the assembly.

3. Members are required to sit on the police and fire authority boards, may take part in the LDA board and are prohibited from serving on the board of TfL. This confusing fudge should be swept away with members appointed to all the functional body boards in proportion to the size of their political groups.

Democratic Deficit

The combined first past the post and party list election ensures that the assembly is always hung. As a practical result the third party Liberal Democrats get to decide who chairs the committees, treating the public vote as merely a consultation. This leads to weak 'me too' government.

The list element should be discarded and the existing large constituencies halved in size. The result would be a 28 member body with enough members to serve on the functional bodies and clear political control.

Presently the assembly is elected on the same day as the mayor, making it very likely that the mayor's party will dominate the assembly. The elections should be staggered to allow for a mid term assembly vote which could potentially give the opposition a much stronger hand.

Managerialism

Over the last twelve years politicians at all levels have lost a lot of their power, and the current expenses scandal threatens to dilute their influence still further. Constituents wonder why MPs can't prevent hospital closures, councillors can't vote on bus lanes and assembly members can't make the buses run on time. The reason is that many of these powers have been devolved to professional officers - well meaning people who act in line with standards set by their national bodies and strategic plans that bury proposals in turgid detail. Often we are told we can't do things because of health and safety or judicial constraints. Expression of opinions is confined by the threat of the standards regime.

Across the board these restrictions need to be rolled back. The people should be in charge and their elected representatives need to be empowered, not controlled and restricted.

The Record

Notwithstanding its relative impotence, the assembly has produced some good work over the years, but it has been like playing Scrabble without the vowels. The 7/7 review chaired by Richard Barnes provided the only opportunity for a public examination of that terrorist atrocity, given the government's reluctance to hold an inquiry.

The transport committee reports on the collapse of Metronet and the value of bus contracts must have been high quality because Commons select committees incorporated them into their own findings. We were questioning Boris about the heavy snow disruption weeks before his spat with the Commons. My own flooding review from 2002 is still quoted whenever there is heavy rainfall.

But we missed some opportunities too. The failure to scrutinise PPP during the first term left the assembly scrambling to catch up as the complicated structure collapsed under its own weight several years later.

There have been high and low points but with proper reform the assembly could be so much better.

Manchester Conference

2009-10-12T10:05:00.003+01:00

Back in the office, I have a few moments to reflect on last week's Conservative Party Conference. I first attended conference in 1989 at Blackpool. Margaret Thatcher was still Prime Minister and I was a candidate for the local council, selected for a winnable seat at the age of 25 and despite having only joined the party three months earlier. A gang of us from Chingford stayed in a friendly but basic guest house and across the road was a property where scantily clad ladies leaned out of the windows beckoning to us when we returned in the evenings. I didn't have a clue what they were offering...

I spent every day in the conference hall and we all applauded dutifully during each speech. I recall my palms throbbing red raw after a session featuring John Gummer talking about agriculture.

Fast forward to 2009...

Manchester

After Birmingham last year - which was fantastic - I was looking forward to Manchester. I prefer big city conferences with smart hotels and restaurants. You need to walk with confidence, to be noticed, and this is much easier if you know you have a decent base to operate from. You can also decline the rip off breakfast charges and go to Starbucks instead.

I really wanted to like Manchester, not least because I was born in Rochdale so this was something of a home coming. The architecture is really impressive, with a lot of big old buildings dating from the age of industrial prosperity. The Town Hall is something else, an exotic fairytale castle planted right in the heart of the city. They directed the nineties drama 'GBH' here and the building also featured as the House of Commons before filming inside Parliament was permitted. In the seventies the big projects continued, with Piccadilly Square and the Arndale Centre making a questionable impression. Most recently there has been a glut of shiny residential blocks and hotels with the Beetham Tower most prominent.

A wander around town on Sunday evening revealed a young and fun loving population. It wasn't as cosmopolitan as London and some of the rowdy behaviour around the clubs reminded me of Romford on a Friday night. And I had forgotten the rain - it came down in sheets throughout Tuesday, imprisoning me in the hotel bar. I must take an umbrella next time.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Well, the greatest political show for some time at any rate. This year a lot more people attended. The exhibition hall was packed with stands and there was a food market featuring Tesco, Asda and M&S all actually selling things and expecting - shock, horror - to make a profit. Harvey Nicks made an appearance, operating a cocktail bar just outside the conference hall, although champagne was - according to the press - forbidden.

Many more companies, charities and pressure groups were represented, all wanting to meet the people they think could be running the country soon. The Midland Hotel has a large lobby but the seating proved inadequate to support all the impromptu meetings and more tables had to be drafted in on Monday morning. I arrived too late to reserve a place and conducted my own meeting with the chairman of Crossrail standing up in a remote corner. Later I encountered the 2012 gang who stuck an Olympic logo pin in my lapel.

But I was relatively undisturbed. Some candidates for winnable seats reported meeting requests from 200 or more lobbyists, often completely unrelated to their interests or expertise. The assembly had this to a lesser extent a few years ago so now I always ask the lobbyist to prepare an agenda before we meet - this request for a small piece of work ensures that ninety percent take their business elsewhere and I only see relevant people.

It was all a far cry from recent conferences which were shunned by business interests and saw members talking to themselves. I'm in two minds about the situation, really. Yes, we are being taken seriously, but it also feels like the activists have lost something. In 1997 we were in mourning at Blackpool, but we also felt closer to the leadership and the audience were even invited onto the stage on the last day. Not much chance of that now.

The Fringe

We ran our own fringe meeting on Wednesday evening, kindly sponsored by Canary Wharf. It took place outside the security cordon in the Lord Mayor's Parlour, which was something else - a huge room in which you could lose the City Hall chamber, hung with full length portraits of the early Lord Mayors. I doubt we will ever see similar pictures of our own Ken and Boris, displayed for future generations. It took eight years for the GLA to get a portrait of the Queen...

Following last year's successful speed dating event, when 200 people queued out of the door to meet AMs, we decided to follow the same format. Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home was our special guest and MEP Syed Kamall made a surprise appearance. Six Assembly Members made it to the event and activists were delighted to meet James Cleverly, Richard Tracey, Victoria Borwick, Andrew Boff and Tony Arbour. Shadow minister Andrew Rosindell also dropped in.

The discussion was lively and wide ranging, including bendy bus replacement, police station closures, cost cutting at City Hall, and of course members' pay. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of positive initiatives that were suggested and the interest shown by people not just from London, but from across the country. We will repeat the speed dating format next year so book early...

'Speed Dating' at Conference

2009-10-02T09:16:00.003+01:00

Following the success of our Speed Dating reception at Birmingham last year, where over 200 people queued up to meet London assembly personalities and the blogger Guido Fawkes, I am pleased to announce that we will be hosting another session next week in Manchester.

This time our special guest is Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home, and of course members of the London assembly will also be present.

We are meeting in the Mayor's Parlour at Manchester Town Hall - moving up in the world this year - at 5:30pm on Wednesday 7th October. No need to reserve places, but the event was busy last year, so please turn up on time.

Havering Business Awards

2009-09-28T09:06:00.003+01:00

On Friday night I attended the Havering Business Awards dinner with guests from the Fire Authority. We had been nominated for one of the prizes but it was far from a done deal - two years ago we reached the final but did not win.

However this time the efforts of the team were rewarded. The Fire authority won the Sustainable Design and Construction Award for the new fire station currently under construction at Harold Hill. This is the first fire station to be built in London for twelve years, which is in itself a cause for celebration. The building is designed to minimise its carbon footprint, making efficient use of energy and water. It can also be adapted to house more fire engines if necessary or altered for other uses. So congratulations to Barbara Riddell and her LFEPA team.

But that wasn't the end as the contractor who is building the station, Lakehouse Contracts Ltd, walked away with the Business and Education Partnership Award for its work with the further education college. More of their projects can be seen at www.lakehouse.uk.com .They then topped off the evening by winning the overall Havering Business of the Year Award.

A great night for a great team...

Congestion Charge Extension Will Be Scrapped

2009-09-23T14:07:00.003+01:00

Today the Evening Standard carries a story claiming that Boris will renege on his election promise to scrap the Western Extension of the Congestion Charge Zone. The piece looks to be based on rumours that have been circulating in the blogosphere for a few days and a rather selective take on a quote from Transport Advisor, Kulveer Ranger.

The phones and emails are buzzing over this, and Boris has issued the following statement:

You may have heard the scurrilous rumour that I have reneged on my promise to remove the Western Extension of the Congestion Charge Zone. I am writing now to tell you that is emphatically not true.

When I was elected, I promised to give Londoners the consultation they never got. Londoners expressed the overwhelming view that it should be removed, and I promised to honour that judgement. I maintain that promise today, and to make it absolutely crystal clear: we will be removing the Western Extension next year.

We have to jump through a number of tedious bureaucratic hoops before the axe can fall, but fall it will. The extended zone will be no more. It will be an ex-zone, the area formally known as. It will be a dead zone!

So there we have it, from the Mayor's own mouth and in his own - unique - words.

Zil Lanes Criticised

2009-09-22T18:44:00.002+01:00

A memorable feature of the Soviet Union was the exclusive 'Zil Lane', reserved for communist VIPs to be swept past the traffic jams in their limousines. London will have its own version of Zil lanes in 2012 thanks to the Olympic Route Network, providing a fast link between the five star hotels of the West End and the main venues at Stratford and Greenwich. Roads which will have reserved lanes include the Embankment and the Blackwall Tunnel.

We have raised concerns about the proposed network of exclusive lanes in the past, but today news of more criticisms emerged - courtesy of the BBC. It appears that the police and the ambulance service have both expressed concerns about the effect on response times, indeed I recall the last time the proposal was discussed there was some doubt if even the emergency services will be allowed to use the reserved lanes.

The exclusive network was one of the conditions imposed on London before the games were awarded to us. Lanes will be available for competitors naturally and Olympic officials, but other VIPs and journalists will also benefit - no squeezing onto public transport for them...

The Olympics organisers are due to appear before the Assembly for questions in a few weeks and it's a sure bet that the Olympic Route Network will feature high on the agenda.

London Isn't Burning

2009-09-15T14:28:00.003+01:00

Yesterday the Fire Authority received a document reviewing the long term fire trends for Greater London. Bringing together data from the creation of Greater London in 1965 to the present day, the report paints a fascinating picture of how the capital has changed over almost half a century.

Population

In 1966 Greater London's population was around 7.8 million, having declined from some 8.6 million in 1939, at the outbreak of the war. Numbers continued to decline, reaching 6.7 million in 1988 - a year after I moved here - but then started to climb, achieving 7.5 million in 2007. The idea that London is more populous than at any time in its history is therefore incorrect, however there are other social trends which arguably have a greater impact.

The number of households - unlike the population - has steadily increased over the same period from 2.2 million in 1966 to 3.1 million in 2008, driving the demand for development and urbanisation. Behind these figures are large numbers of single parent families and people who live alone. I have always thought there was scope for someone to lobby on behalf of single Londoners, and these figures demonstrate the growth of this important group.

Fires

In 1976 the number of fires peaked at 63,524, declining to just 29,735 at the end of 2008 - the lowest total since 1965. The number of fires per year has fallen steadily since 2003. Fire deaths in 2008 (46) were less than a quarter of the numbers suffered in 1980 (196), which is very good news although of course the numbers don't yet include the recent Lakanal House tragedy.

In 1966 the London Fire Brigade responded to more than 10 chimney fires but by 2008 clean air legislation and the decline of coal as an energy source meant that only one such fire occurred every three to four days.

In 1966 50% of all the incidents attended by the Brigade were fires. In 2008 only 20% of callouts relate to fires. Much more time is spent responding to road accidents, flooding and people trapped in lifts.

Gants Hill Delays

2009-09-14T08:35:00.003+01:00

Depressing news reaches me from TfL. During the work on the roundabout at Gants Hill, they have unearthed 'unidentified utilities', and this now means that the project is going to be delayed considerably. The pipes and cables need to be traced and then diverted to allow for the road works.

The original completion date of October 2010 has now been put back to April 2011 !! The carriageway will be returned to its previous capacity, with temporary traffic management measures in place.

TfL have undertaken to brief me regularly and to keep Redbridge Council and local stakeholders informed as the work progresses.

Choppy Water at MQT

2009-09-09T17:13:00.003+01:00

Boris and the Conservative Group don't agree on everything - the mayor appealed beyond traditional party loyalties to secure his election so some dissent is to be expected. The other groups have commented on the somewhat independent approach of some Conservative members. "Ken would never have tolerated this from Labour." is a commonly expressed sentiment.

Past meetings have seen clashes over a proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants and the powers that TfL exercise in deciding the location of bus stops. Today things got rougher than usual.

With the coming year's budget in prospect, members lined up to make the case for a repeat of last year's precept freeze. Trenchant colleague Brian Coleman pushed a bit further, calling for significant cuts particularly in the Transport for London monolith. It probably got a bit more heated than envisaged but Boris was left in no doubt that we will be seeking to protect council tax payers during the budget consultation.

Andrew Boff then raised concerns about the LDA's funding of new academies. The worry - shared by other members - is that the mayor is extending his powers onto territory that is firmly under borough control. Andrew even suggested that the effect would be to recreate a smaller version of the ILEA, along with an 'Outer London Education Authority' - OLEA!

Some constructive criticism of the administration is, in my opinion, a good thing, and anyway it is our job. Visitors in the gallery told me how refreshing they find this after the toadying that is all too evident at Prime Minister's Questions. But perhaps things went too far this time...

I raised concerns - originally highlighted by Morris Hickey - about the standard of service on the 462 bus route, which often runs early at Fulwell Cross, 14 minutes early on one occasion documented by Morris. The Mayor promised further sanctions against Arriva if the service did not improve and told us that two drivers had been disciplined for failing to observe the timetable. Hopefully things will get better but I'm sure we will soon know if they don't.

Back to it...

2009-09-07T11:12:00.004+01:00

Wednesday sees the first Mayor's Question Time of the autumn session.

My colleague Richard Tracey leads off the bowling with a question about the overflow of raw sewage into the Thames. It's the first chance to discuss the incident that occurred in July and with autumn storms in prospect it remains a live issue. Plans for a new storm sewer should ultimately prevent further discharges but the project remains many years and billions of pounds away.

The Greens and Labour are both raising the future of bus services, in the likely event that subsidies are cut by the government. Jenny Jones provides the more detailed question, offering a slew of potentially unpopular alternatives including fare increases and network cuts. Detail is likely to be sketchy as the government's intentions are unclear but the issue is likely to resurface in the coming months.

For the Lib Dems Caroline Pidgeon is asking a wider question about the coming annual fare package. Traditionally this is announced in September and implemented in the New Year. Will Boris use Caroline's question as an opportunity to make a statement?

Richard Barnbrook questions the Mayor's support for regularisation of London's illegal immigrants. Boris has stuck his neck out over this issue, disagreeing with national Conservative - and Labour - policy, and also with the views of our own group, so his current take on the situation will be interesting.

I have several guests attending from local accountancy firm Haslers ( http://www.haslers.co.uk/ ) and those who manage to sit through the full two and a half hours of questions will get a guided tour of City Hall from me as a reward for their dedication...

A Week In Bosnia

2009-08-09T08:05:00.003+01:00

We returned last Friday but I deliberately waited before posting this. Bosnia is a hugely complex place with great contrasts, not least in the emotions it brings out in visitors, and bringing the country to life in print is challenging. Well, here goes, and this may take some time.

First the disclaimer - which is unfortunately necessary in the current political climate. This was a working visit, not a Parliamentary style fact finding mission. We did it in our own time and paid for our own flights and basic accommodation. All the material we used was donated by well wishers. No tax payers were harmed in the course of this event.

First Impressions

Bosnia was a part of the greater Yugoslavia which fell apart during the nineties. Sandwiched between Orthodox Serbia and Catholic Croatia, the moderate Muslim state soon became the target of a territorial 'carve up' orchestrated by its more powerful neighbours. Now enjoying a fragile peace, Bosnia is divided into Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian territories largely according to where the front lines ran when hostilities were suspended. The country has a three man presidency, one from each ethnic group and each taking turns to lead.

The capital, Sarajevo looks to be about the size of Reading. The city sits in a valley and was besieged by Serb forces during the war. We passed through on our arrival and spent some time there on our last day and the healing process looks to be going well. Prosperity has returned, new building is under way, crowded trams and trolley buses run in the streets, the airport is functioning.

Outside the city the story is different. Homes, mosques and churches are being rebuilt but there is still great poverty. Whole villages were destroyed during the ethnic cleansing and many ruined buildings remain - forlorn skeletons against the clear sky or just patches of rubble.

The countryside is attractive but sombre, rolling hills and mountains, all cloaked in dark forests. The roads are winding and poorly maintained in many places. The climate is warm and humid, but in winter heavy snow falls and whole areas are isolated.

The Tragedy of Srebrenica

Srebrenica is a three hour drive from Sarajevo. We arrived as dusk was falling on the first night. Here, in 1995, Bosnian Serbs led by General Ratko Mladic attacked the town, clearing its Muslim inhabitants. Supposedly a UN protected enclave, in reality the Dutch peacekeeping troops were powerless to prevent the murder of some 8,000 civilians by the heavily armed Serbs. There is a genocide memorial here, constructed with the help of London's Imperial War Museum, and it is a deeply moving place. I remember seeing the awful events unfold on television at the time, but nothing can prepare you for actually being here.

At home, we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and we send visitors to Auschwitz so that the grim lessons of history are not forgotten, yet here in Srebrenica another ethnically inspired massacre took place just fourteen short years ago. Many of the bodies were never recovered and the forests around the town conceal numerous mass graves. It takes a lot to silence a group of politicians yet we were left unable to speak.

The town itself has a haunted, watchful, atmosphere. Not content with cleansing the population, Mladic also destroyed the homes of non Serbs so they could not return. Many of the houses and blocks of flats stand derelict and empty. Most of the inhabitants, the town officials and the police are Serbs and there is an air of sullen hostility, a wariness of outsiders.

Getting Our Hands Dirty

The Fund For Refugees had requested our help with three projects. With the help of Microsoft, computers were to be installed in Srebrenica's school. There was work to be done painting and finishing off new houses for the villagers up in the hills. Finally, a team led by Tobias Ellwood MP would help to create a football pitch for the local youngsters and we hoped to play a match against them before we left.

I got to work on the house and it soon became clear that my painting skills weren't up to Bosnian standards. The local builders and the old lady who owned the place soon took the roller off me and gave me a cloth to clean up after my more expert colleagues. Deborah Dunleavy - our candidate for Bolton - had clearly missed her vocation and her painting efforts were rewarded with cries of 'Super! Super!' from the admiring locals.

For the rest of the day I was banished outside to help break up a stone outhouse and cart away the huge lumps of slate. Pushing a wheelbarrow around over the following three days was not the most skilled of tasks, but at least I kept up my exercise regime. There were vicious scorpions amongst the debris and we were plagued by blood sucking flies, but the spirit of the team - led by my old Assembly colleague, Eric Ollerenshaw - now the candidate for Lancaster and Fleetwood - remained high and on the last day we hosted a picnic under the trees and were joined by the old lady and her neighbours.

Why?

Clearly people were surprised to find politicians who were willing to roll their sleeves up and join in, but why do it? The contribution we made was meaningful but given a few more days the Bosnians could have done the job themselves. For me, the opportunity to talk to the people at the sharp end, unsupervised by local political figures, was the most valuable part of the exercise. Politicians visiting trouble spots are usually fed an official message, toured around a local showpiece, given a slap up meal then put back on the plane, so this was refreshing.

Over three days we were able to communicate, even though the old lady and her neighbours knew very little English, and we knew no Bosnian. They were cheerful and stoic people but beneath the surface was great tragedy. Everyone we met had lost relatives in the war and many had been displaced. They had some truly harrowing personal stories. Grief was never far away.

There are no easy solutions to the world's problems and intervention cannot always be the answer. There is however no excuse for lack of preparation or a confused response. At Srebrenica peacekeepers were deployed but could not be used effectively, leading to a disastrous loss of confidence in the UN.

Enjoying a farewell barbecue on the last evening, we raised our gaze to look across the valley at the towering cliffs and mountains, as close to us as Canary Wharf is to The City. 'That's Serbia. They shoot at us from over there.' we were told.

Project Maja

2009-07-26T21:27:00.003+01:00

With the final meetings of the Assembly, the Fire Authority and the Police Authority completed last week, members can turn their minds to the opportunities afforded by the summer break. I'm going to Bosnia next week to take part in Project Maja together with a team from the Conservative Social Action Unit.

Project Maja is a follow up to Social Action's efforts in Rwanda. We will be helping the Fund for Refugees to rebuild properties following the tragic civil war in the area around Srebrenica. Project leader, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi says:

As Conservatives we believe that having guiding principles is not enough, rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck in on the ground shows that we don't just believe in tackling poverty and injustice, but through a new type of politics we can make a real, worthwhile difference.

Most of the team are Parliamentarians or candidates for Westminster, so it was a real coup for the London Assembly Group to be involved. We will be blogging our experiences over at Conservative Home. I will provide a fuller report back on my return next week, meanwhile comment moderation will take place when the opportunity arises.