Month: Aug 2008

Categories
Mayor Johnson

Boris needs to spend his own pennies

I am really pleased to see that Boris Johnson is promoting Richmond’s Community Toilet Scheme. Ealing has been looking at this too, see paper here.

One of the biggest businesses in London is Transport for London. More public conveniences in and around TfL’s estate would be welcomed by Londoners.

As the mayor controls TfL and its budgets it would be good to hear from him what he is going to do to himself rather than hearing from him exhortation to businesses to sign up for a scheme that is run by Richmond council. I think many boroughs are interested in this scheme but it is their responsibility and their budgets that would be involved.

A particular problem in our neighbourhood is the tube staff not letting minicab drivers use their loos at South Ealing. Considering that the minicab drivers are all vetted and registered by TfL it should be no great hardship to give these people access to tube loos. I think some customers might occasionally enjoy a leak at South Ealing too.

At the very least TfL could give minicab and black cab drivers access to all TfL staff loos. Then TfL might think about staff loos on certain bus routes. It might check that all staff of tenants of units on its premises have access to toilets. Then it might think about how more of its estate could be set aside for public toilets. Over to you Boris.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Ealing’s recycling rate hits 38%

Ealing’s recycling rate edged towards 38% in June, see details here. This is quite an achievement for the the people of Ealing. Although the council has heard people’s desire to recycle more and expanded the food re-cycling scheme trailed by the previous administration, introduced cardboard and plastics recycling and made garden waste recycling easier the council couldn’t have achieved anything without the clear message from people that this was what they wanted and the enthusiasm with which people have used the facilities provided. Well done Ealing.

Tonight I was sorting out our own rubbish and recycling. With a small baby we produce the best part of a bin bag of disposable nappies every week – sorry I’ve never been convinced by the terry nappy argument. But even with our very own baby environmental disaster I still reckon we send twice as much weight to recycling as we do to landfill.

Categories
Mayor Johnson

On the buses

I do feel sorry for young mother Maja Krogh fined £50 for not paying her 90p bus fare and given a criminal record, albeit a temporary one (see today’s Evening Standard). That said, she might have forgotten to swipe her card every day for all we know. Too many people still do across London’s transport system.

Transport for London’s crusade against fare dodging would have more credibility if all of its staff consistently confronted fare dodgers all the time. Too many staff shrug their shoulders when people tailgate you through ticket barriers or fail to swipe on to buses. It seems staff can only stand up to fare dodgers when they are in gangs of ticket inspectors backed up with police. It looks unfortunate to say the least to see an inspector accompanied by an officer round on a mother with a young child.

But TfL must collect its fares. In 2006/7 every bus journey cost TfL 87p. Unfortunately it only managed to collect an average of 55p per journey. As a result TfL’s bus operations (forget buying the buses in the first place, just running them) need subsidising to the tune of £617 million. If TfL could rouse itself to collect 90p per journey, it could run buses at a profit.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

West Ealing chariot procession

This piece in Ealing Times on Saturday morning reminded me about the Sri Kanaga Thurkkai Amman Hindu Temple procession this morning. They parade a chariot carrying their goddess around a circular route that goes clockwise out of their front door in Chapel Road in West Ealing, down the Uxbridge Road, right again into Culmington Road and right again into Mattock Lane.

People were starting to arrive at 7am this morning around my house for the 9:45am kick off. Apparently last year there were 10,000 people. This year there were maybe fewer people although it was pretty busy.

I guess there were about 400 people taking part in the procession, there were three parties of 50 or so leading the way. Two waves of guys impersonating horses with silver bits in their mouths and hooks in their backs pulling along “riders”. Then another group accompanied by drummers dancing with urns on their heads.

There were about 100 women walking backwards with pots on their heads. The chariot itself was pulled by 50 or so people and from the chariot priests were blessing bowls of food which people bought up. Finally, some 50 or so guys were rolling behind the chariot. It would be interesting to hear more about what the various parts of the parade mean.

The organisers were twice refused a Traffic Management Order by the council to close roads because they couldn’t get their act together. Talking to both council officers and police officers present both are pretty unhappy about the way the organisers are not playing the game. The crowd are obviously family groups observing their religion and enjoying their culture. One of the organisers told me that the vast majority of people are Sri Lankan Tamils. There were a lot of stewards on duty and on the whole things looked well organised. Last year it took a while to clean up. If the temple is going to keep the goodwill of local people they need to make sure that the area gets cleaned up quickly and they comply with the requirements of the council and the police. Nothing will wind up the neighbours more than the feeling that the temple isn’t playing by the rules.

I would be interested to hear what the neighbours think – and also to hear from the participants.

Categories
Mayor Johnson

Congestion Charge is a failure

Congestion Charge signToday the papers are covering the publication of the 6th Congestion Charge Monitoring Report by TfL on Wednesday, see here. Or rather not in many cases. Nothing in the Standard and only a perfunctory piece in the Telegraph.

The Guardian had a news piece and some editorial.

The Guardian says:

London’s roads, it emerged yesterday, are just as snarled up as they were before the congestion charge was introduced five years ago. So was it a costly mistake? Quite the opposite. The charge netted £137m last year and has cut the number of cars entering the central zone each day by 70,000. Unfortunately, road diggers and construction mean those who do drive in spend too much time in jams.

The Guardian is quick to crow about the £137 million surplus the Congestion Charge apparently makes. Typically TfL figures do not include indirect overheads – when TfL’s accounts get past the Audit Commission this number will be down below £100 million.

The Guardian is also not quick to point out that £73 million of this income is from fines. It’s a pretty rubbish system that takes over £250 million off Londoners and puts back less than £100 million most of which is fines income.

Even that money is not free and clear. This infrastructure cost about £320 million to set up. Over the five years or so of operation of this system it has taken about £1.2 billion off Londoners and spent just about every penny on … the system. It has generated very little net cash.

The Congestion Charge had failed on every level.

Categories
Ex-Mayor Livingstone Mayor Johnson

Livingstone’s last gasp

Tonight the Standard’s Andrew Gilligan is reporting the sick making pay-offs received by 8 of the former mayor’s political appointees. Apparently the bill is £1.6 million or roughly £200K each. These guys were already on inflated salaries but they have held out for compensation for loss of office even though they knew from the start that they were political appointees whose jobs would end with the mayor’s.

The contrast with the new mayor’s appointments could not be starker. His First Deputy Mayor and Chief Executive of the GLA Group, Tim Parker, is on a nominal £1 per annum. His Senior Adviser, Planning, Sir Simon Milton, is unpaid. His Deputy Mayor, Policing, Kit Malthouse, scrapes by on his assembly member’s allowance, which is less than half of what the old mayor’s political appointees were on.

Some of Boris’ team are on the same kind of salaries as the last lot but I suspect that Boris himself will be first in the queue to slag his team if they try the same trick in 4 years or 8 years. Meanwhile Livingstone, whose contempt for those Londoners who pay the tab is well known, is silent about his own people.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Accountability is a two-way street

This week the Ealing & Acton Gazette published a letter from an Ann Pavett. In it she essentially challenges Councillor Mark Reen that he will face the wrath of voters for having the temerity to speak in favour of the Dickens Yard scheme. She says:

Councillor Mark Reen should indeed be feeling uncomfortable that his views are not in accord with a great many residents on the issue of the Dicken’s Yard Development.

I believe in democracy and as far as I am concerned we elect people to office and award them money to broadly represent our wishes.

If it becomes apparent that they are not representing our wishes we vote them out of office.

She is quite right to point out that councillors are accountable to their electorates. Pavett herself fails to point out that she has a role in Save Ealing’s Centre (SEC).

SEC are a group of unaccountable activists who refuse to identify themselves on their website and refuse to publish minutes of their meeting or even publish notices of meetings or invite public participation. It seems the council organises public participation and unaccountable SEC throws rocks from the sides. Until SEC identify themselves it is too easy to write them off as a small group of people with big houses in the centre of Ealing who represent a very narrow interest.