A 10^th anniversary exhibition highlighting the work carried out every day to keep the borough safe goes on show to members of the public at the Europa Gallery, Sutton Central Library, on Saturday, 24 January 2015.

Caroline Pidgeon says:

Welcome to my New Year transport newsletter, which gives an update on some of the transport issues I have been taking up at City Hall and across the capital over recent weeks and months.

Since my last newsletter we have seen the annual fare rise with some real winners and losers. Despite a Treasury grant to help keep fares down the harsh reality is that the Mayor and Transport for London are still hiking fares up in general by 2.5 per cent.

The one welcome aspect of this year’s fare package has been the long overdue realisation that TfL can no longer fleece people who work part-time or flexibly. I have long called for a part time travelcard and this is a step in the right direction. The lower Oyster daily pay as you go cap for Oyster fares for peak travel is certainly welcome. However, even these positive changes have been marred by the Mayor and TfL attempting to sneak through massive increases in off peak travel for people living in outer London including fares for children.

Adults travelling to or from zones 4, 5 and 6 are now seeing substantial increases in their fares if they travel after 9.30am, or at weekends. For example someone starting their journey after 9.30am and travelling from Zone 6 into central London faced last year a daily cap of £8.50 when using Oyster Pay as You Go. At the start of this year the new daily cap has soared to £11.70 – an increase of 38%. Children from outer London are also being hit hard. For example the Child Rate One Day off peak Travelcard has been increased from £3.60 to £6.00. That is a staggering increase of 66%.

When Boris Johnson was first elected in 2008 he made a big claim that he would seek to represent all of London and not just people living in Zone 1. Seven years on it seems Boris Johnson has forgotten this pledge.

The New Year has also seen continued misery for passengers using London Bridge station. As a passenger through this station I know first-hand the additional stress and pressure the constant overcrowding, cancellations and delays are having on commuters. We were promised that after Christmas and the two week station closure everything would be sorted and yet the New Year has brought even more pain and fewer trains for passengers. As Chair of the Transport Committee I have written to Network Rail about this and the problems at King’s Cross, and will continue to press for improvements while these major works continue.

I have continued to push for safer more segregated routes for cyclists and challenged the Mayor about his plans for an East West Cycle Superhighway which has come under criticism by some in the City of London and Canary Wharf Group. I have pushed the Mayor to stick to his overall vision and not be pressured by those who may prefer chauffeured cars than cycles.

I continue to campaign across London with local councillors and campaigners in the Boroughs from Southwark and Lambeth to Redbridge and Richmond. Details for each London Borough can be found at my website www.carolinepidgeon.org.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if I can help with any issue.

With best wishes,

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM
Liberal Democrat London Transport Spokesperson

Sutton Council is consulting residents on a proposal to introduce single yellow lines operating 8.30am to 6.30pm on Mondays to Saturdays inclusive in Oxford Road adjacent to No. 312 Carshalton Road. (opposite No. 80 Oxford Road)

A copy of the proposed Order, of the Council’s Statement of Reasons for proposing to make the Order (and of the Orders that would be revoked or amended by the proposed Order) and plans showing the locations and the effects of the proposals may be inspected at the Council’s Civic Offices at St. Nicholas Way, Sutton and at the Environment and Neighbourhood Offices at 24 Denmark Road, Carshalton between 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively, a copy of this statutory public notice of proposals and copies of the plans can be viewed by visiting our web site

www.sutton.gov.uk/trafficpublicnotices under Reference WL994.

If you wish to object to the proposed Order you should send a statement in writing, including the grounds for your objection and quoting the

Reference WL994 to Caroline McGlynn, Highways, Transport and Smarter Travel, London Borough of Sutton, 24 Denmark Road, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 2JG by Thursday 5th February 2015. You can also email us at traffic.postbook@sutton.gov.uk . Further information may be obtained by telephoning Highways, Transport and Smarter Travel on 020 8770 6455.

This week Sutton Council launched a two-month consultation to help us make some significant decisions that will affect the future of the services that are provided at our Children’s Centres. The consultation, part of our Sutton’s Future campaign, will encourage residents to have their say on possible options for the 14 Children’s Centres which we fund. The centres support the early development of young children and assist parents in giving their child the best possible start in life. We are faced with having to reduce the service or find other ways for residents to access them because of the unprecedented cuts to council budgets by the Government. We have to save £40m from our annual budget by 2019, having already saved £32m since 2011.

Until now we’ve been able to protect services for children and families. So, when many local authorities were reducing the number of Children’s Centres between 2008 and 2012, we decided to retain ours for as long as possible. However, in order to help make the cuts to the council’s budget we are now proposing to provide a smaller number through ‘hub’ centres which would deliver a full range of services and ‘spokes’ which would become local-area delivery points for smaller, more targeted services. The consultation will include workshops at each of the 14 Children’s Centres and an online survey. It will help us better understand the impact that closing the centres will have on families, the services they use and how they use them, as well as the alternatives available.
The options being considered include:

1. Retain one full ‘hub’ Children’s Centre with three ‘spoke’ delivery points
2. Retain three full ‘hub’ Children’s Centres with up to two ‘spoke’ delivery points
3. Retaining four full ‘hub’ Children’s Centres with one ‘spoke’ delivery point
4. Exploring shared services with another local authority
5. Outsourcing the service

These are not easy decisions, but by working as a smarter council we will be able to deliver modern and efficient services that benefit our residents.

More information on the children’s centres consultation is available at www.suttonsfuture.org/childrenscentres

EcoLocal gave a presentation at the Carshalton Local Committee last week on their progress to retain The Lodge for community use.

As they said: “The Lodge is situated within the grounds of the Ecology Centre at the heart of historic Carshalton. Sutton Council no longer has use for The Lodge and is considering how to dispose of it. The Council has been very supportive and at the meeting last night useful questions were asked, and once again our proposals received positive feedback. You can read about our plans online. We’d like to encourage those who haven’t yet completed our online consultation questionnaire to have a say about the future of The Lodge. The more responses we get the better. And please do share the link with other people you think might be interested. Thank you”.

Update: This is to advise the Lodge consultation is still open until end of February.

Real Christmas trees will be collected by Sutton Council from Tuesday 6 January until Monday 2 February.

Please put them out next to your recycling bins on your collection day.

Chairman Councillor Hamish Pollock says: “Do come along to our meeting of the Carshalton & Clockhouse Local Committee on Tuesday 6th January 2015 from 7.30pm. We’ll be meeting at Carshalton Beeches Baptist Church, Banstead Road, Carshalton, which is quite near the shopping parades.”

Hear about Environmental Improvements in your area

Safer Neighbourhood Team

Get updates on The Lodge abnd The Grove House.

Find out more about how the local committee spends money on Public Realm Improvements

Hear how you could access a neighbourhood grant of up to £500 for your local group, including youth groups…

SEE YOU THERE!

It might be nearly Christmas and the end of the year, but it has been a busy time recently at City Hall.

After sneaking through increases in off peak fares the Mayor now pushes through further increases in the cycle hire scheme

Last month saw the Mayor’s annual announcement on fare changes. Hidden away in the package of fare changes were severe increases in off peak fares for people in outer London. Not content with attempting to smuggle through these changes, TfL are now set to increase charges for many users of the cycle hire scheme as well.

The New Year changes were only announced last Monday in a press release issued last week by TfL.

Caroline said: “Under the cloak of ‘simplification’ the Mayor and TfL were hoping they could push through increases in the cycle hire scheme for many users of the scheme, without anyone noticing. To attempt to push through such increases in such an underhand way, just two years after the doubling of fees is insulting in the extreme.

Full details of the changes can be seen at the Politics website

Future Proof – Taxi and Private Hire Services in London

Last week saw the publication of a significant report on the future of taxis and private hire services in the capital by the London Assembly Transport Committee, chaired by Caroline.

Over 300,000 trips a day are made in taxis and minicabs and customer satisfaction has been decreasing – but recently the debate has been distracted somewhat by the focus on Uber.

The report makes nineteen recommendations to the Mayor and TfL, including;

· Publish a long term strategy for the development of the taxi and private hire industries, strengthening enforcement and clamping down on touting.
· Improve vehicle and rank signage and develop specific public awareness campaigns which show how to correctly identify whether a driver/vehicle is licensed.
· Set out plans to ensure that all Underground stations located on the 24-hour Tube network have a taxi rank in place by the launch of the programme in September 2015.
· Incentivise the uptake of cashless payment options.
· Provide incentives to Private Hire vehicles to become wheelchair accessible.

Copies of the London Assembly report can be seen here.

BBC London’s Television coverage of the report is also worth looking at.

Does the cable car even have one regular user?

Last week there was a report, based on figures obtained from a freedom of information request, showing that during one week in October not a single person was regularly using the cable car.

Commenting on these figures Caroline said:

“It is amazing that the cable car had no regular customers during a recent week in October.

“The cable car should either be run as a tourist attraction or alternatively as an integral form of public transport, where people with a relevant travelcard can travel for free and an Oyster Pay As You Go fare should be the same as a single bus fare.

“Despite the large amount of public money that went into the cable car and after two and half of years of operation it is regrettable that the Mayor and TfL have never managed to make a decision as to what purpose the cable car should serve.”

Garden Bridge gets planning approval from the Mayor’s office – but numerous questions still remain

Following the announcement on Friday that a green light has been given by the Mayor’s office to permit planning approval for the Garden Bridge Caroline Pidgeon said:

“Numerous questions still remain over the long term maintenance funding of the bridge and who will ultimately be picking up the bill.

“Important issues also remain about the public access to the bridge.”

“Will people be ticketed to use the bridge and just how often will the bridge close for commercial purposes? These are just some of the basic issues that have not yet been resolved.

“The Mayor of London’s office has made a decision behind closed doors at City Hall to back the planning proposal, but at some point answers to these questions will have to be given to the public.”

Keep in touch with Caroline and Stephen

Both Caroline and Stephen can be followed on twitter. Do follow them if you don’t already. You can keep up with Caroline at @CarolinePidgeon and Stephen at @StephenKnight1. The GLA Liberal Democrat Assembly Group’s Twitter feed is at @GLALibDems

You can also keep up with a lot of transport issues that Caroline takes up, in every borough across London, at her own website. Alternatively you can keep up with the activities of both Caroline and Stephen at www.glalibdems.org.uk

Finally if you would like Caroline or Stephen to raise an issue, especially through Mayor’s Question Time, please send your suggestions to info@glalibdems.org.uk

Accessibility improvements for more stations after funding boost

Extra Access for All funding will make 26 additional stations accessible to all

Twenty-six rail stations in England, Scotland and Wales will receive a share of £60 million funding to improve access for passengers, Transport Minister Baroness Kramer announced on Tuesday 16 December 2014. Accessible, step-free access will be provided at each of the stations after the Government announced additional funding earlier this month to extend the Access for All programme. Each of the stations will get an accessible route into the station and between each platform, such as via lifts.

The government announced in its National Infrastructure Plan earlier this month that it will increase the funding for Access for All by £60 million. The successful stations were nominated by the rail industry last year and selected for funding according to passenger numbers, the needs of the local area, and proximity to facilities such as hospitals or schools for disabled children.

The list of London/SE stations approved for funding is:

10,000 people need to sign up by the 15th February 2015 to make the service viable. Stopping the free service will save £736,000 a year

Sutton Council will begin charging for Green Garden Waste Collection from July 2015 provided 10,000 people sign up for the service.

Residents have until 15th February 2015 to sign up for the service. They can either do that online by visitingwww.sutton.gov.uk/ggw or they will receive a form in the post to fill in and send back to the council.

A 240 litre bin will be charged at £59 annually with an early bird discount rate of £49 on offer if people sign up before the 15th February 2015. That’s cheaper than neighbouring boroughs of Kingston (£71), Merton (£65) and Richmond (£60). This decision was taken by Thursday’sEnvironment and Neighbourhood’s Committee after almost 2,000 people had their say on the future of the service. The consultation was part of the council’s Sutton’s Future campaign which encourages residents to help the council achieve £40m of savings from its annual budget by 2019. The savings are being forced by unprecedented government reductions to funding and growing demand for council services.

Residents were given the option of the current free service becoming a charged for service, or being stopped completely. The paid for service will start on1 July, 2015if enough residents sign up. If they don’t, the service is likely stop in April 2015. The council will begin promoting the sign up to residents in the coming weeks.

Councillor Colin Hall, Deputy Leader of Sutton Council, said:

“There has been enough interest in having a paid for service that we are going to support residents by seeing if we can get enough people to sign up to make it viable. Most people who took part in the consultation understood the rationale of stopping the free service because of the budgetary pressures we are under. The fact that we had almost 2,000 responses shows that our residents want to help shape Sutton’s Future. If enough people sign up, then the charge of £59 annually, with an early bird discount to £49 works out roughly as £1 a week – that’s cheaper than our neighbouring boroughs charge. We really need to get to the 10,000 mark so please sign up if you are interested online or via the leaflet that will be coming through your door.”

Consultation results

The borough-wide consultation included a telephone survey representative of the borough, an online survey on the Sutton’s Future website and three ‘Have Your Say’ events where residents could give their views in person and ask questions. In the telephone survey, 79% of those surveyed had a garden and 74% of these used the current service. Out of the 1,002 people surveyed, 32% were in favour of charging for the service and 42% supported it being stopped. In the online survey, out of the 892 people that took part, 69% favoured the chargeable service and 60% said they intended to subscribe; 11% said they supported the service stopping. In the three ‘Have Your Say’ events, the preferred option among the 92 attendees was to charge for the service. The events were held in Wallington, Sutton Civic Offices and the Life Centre.