Author Archives: Caroline Pidgeon

All Aboard! One hour bus campaign moves up a gear

By Caroline Pidgeon | 27th March 2012 - 7:22 pm

Tomorrow Brian Paddick and I are boarding our first campaign bus together, and what better way to celebrate than using it to launch our great One Hour Bus Ticket policy.

We’ll be travelling round eight London boroughs informing residents that the Lib Dems are dedicated to targeting fare reductions at those Londoners who need them most. Our Fairer Fares package proposes six ways to save, one of which is a One Hour Bus Ticket that will allow people to hop-on and hop-off buses as many times as needed within one hour, paying only one single fare.

The scheme works successfully in several …

Posted in News | Tagged brian paddick, caroline pidgeon, one hour bus ticket and twitter | 2 Comments

London Liberal Democrats – helping those with the smallest pockets get to work

By Caroline Pidgeon | 17th January 2012 - 2:52 pm

Last week Brian Paddick and I launched a fairer fares package ahead of this year’s London Mayoral and Assembly elections.

Boris Johnson has been Mayor of London since 2008. In just four years he has increased the cheapest bus fare from 90p to £1.35 – and he had planned to raise fares even further until the Coalition Government stepped in and helped limit the rise. As well as bus fares, the cost of travelling on the Tube, the Docklands Light Railway, the Croydon Tramlink and the London Overground have all soared under Mr Johnson’s mayoralty.

Of course there …

Posted in London and News | Tagged brian paddick, caroline pidgeon, london and tfl | 10 Comments

Conservative walk-outs stop debate

By Caroline Pidgeon | 10th September 2010 - 12:21 pm

Storming out of a town hall or Assembly chamber in protest is not something I would generally recommend – although in extreme cases there is a case for doing so as I found out earlier this year.

However walking out and knowing that you will stop all business is a very different matter, yet this is what is now taking place at City Hall on a very regular basis. In the last year there have been several occasions when the whole Conservative Group has just got up and left halfway through meetings of the London Assembly, when they don’t agree …

Posted in Local government and London | 9 Comments

Peddling myths over London’s bike hire scheme

By Caroline Pidgeon | 14th August 2010 - 11:50 am

In London one of the most exciting developments this year has been the long awaited launch of the bike hire scheme.

Despite its launch being associated with quite a number of problems – including a highly complex registration process, and a number of cyclists being overcharged – no one can deny that the scheme is proving incredibly popular. And let’s be realistic, no major scheme ever starts without at least some minor teething problems. Of course I will be chasing hard until these glitches are resolved, and they certainly …

Posted in Local government and London | Tagged boris johnson, caroline pidgeon, ken livingstone and lynne featherstone | 9 Comments

Opinion: Countdown to 2012 has already started

By Caroline Pidgeon | 20th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

Harold Wilson’s phrase that a week is a long time in politics was never more true than the dramatic developments that took place last week.

The creation of a new Government, with Liberal Democrats at the heart of it and with so many of our policies built into the coalition agreement, has quite rightly dominated the media. I am sure these events will not easily be forgotten by many Liberal Democrats.

Against such as background it is far from surprising that changes that have taken place in town halls across London and at City Hall have not received a huge amount of …

Posted in Local government, London and Op-eds | Tagged dee doocey | 1 Comment

How long can Boris Johnson carry on defending the indefensible?

By Caroline Pidgeon | 27th March 2010 - 10:20 am

Caroline Pidgeon is a Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and member of the London Fire Emergency and Planning Authority (LFEPA)

Walking out of a meeting as a protest is something I would not normally recommend, but last week I felt had no other option and left a key budget meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). Both the Lib Dem leader on the Fire Authority, Councillor Ed Butcher from Haringey, and I knew we had to make a protest at the decision of the Conservative Chair Brian Coleman to prohibit TV cameras from filming the meeting, and Coleman’s decision to …

Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged bertha joseph, boris johnson, brian coleman, ed butcher and london fire and emergency planning authority | 2 Comments

The grit in the Oyster

By Caroline Pidgeon | 27th February 2010 - 12:50 pm

London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon sets out how the Mayor of London’s approach to problems with the London Oyster travelcard is a demonstration of Boris Johnsons wider approach to addressing issues that face Londoners:

This week at City Hall I was accused by Boris Johnson of being a “negative Liberal Democrat” when I dared to question him over some of the problems that have happened as a result of the extension of Oyster Pay as You Go to national rail services across London.

Well I stand by my questioning of the Mayor as there is no …

Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, london assembly and oyster | 7 Comments

London Underground: should lines be completely shut to speed up engineering work?

By Caroline Pidgeon | 18th July 2009 - 4:47 pm

The London Underground is used by as many people each week as the total number of people who use the nation’s railway network. Caroline Pidgeon sets out why modernising the underground is so important and why new ways of undertaking the upgrades might now be necessary.

At London’s City Hall I’m leading an Assembly investigation into overcrowding on the Tube and what Mayor Boris Johnson can do about it. For many years now Tube passengers have been used to cramming themselves into crowded trains wedged against someone’s armpits. More recently stations like Victoria, King’s Cross, London Bridge and Holborn have had …