Tube Strikes: Mayor gives into unions demands at a cost of £68M
Posted by GLA Conservatives in News
Against all evidence the Mayor is reversing decisions to reduce hundreds of unnecessary staff
The Mayor has given in to union’s demands and massively scaled back plans to reduce unnecessary station staff at a cost of £68million.
Following the closure of underused ticket offices TfL planned to remove 950 station positions at a savings of £50million a year.
In an independent review of this decision, ordered by Sadiq Khan, these plans for ticket office closures were supported. Even with this evidence unions staged a 24-hour Tube strike in early January due to these changes.
Today TfL announced they will be hiring 325 new station staff, and this is estimated to cost £17million a year.*
Mayor to host representatives of eleven ‘Israeli travel ban’ countries at City Hall reception
– Mayor set to condemn Trump’s travel ban at tonight’s event
– Facing calls to also criticise attending countries that ban Israeli citizens
The Mayor of London is set to host representatives of eleven countries that ban Israeli passport holders, hours after rightly condemning Donald Trump’s own travel ban.
Sadiq Khan will use tonight’s gathering at City Hall, where ambassadors and senior dignitaries from more than 100 countries will be in attendance, to criticise the new US President’s strict immigration policy.
London Assembly member Andrew Boff believes the Mayor should use the platform to also condemn the eleven represented countries that ban entry for citizens carrying Israeli passports.
BUDGET: Mayor puts Old Oak Common homes at risk with 40% budget cut
– Experts predict budget cut will impact major project
The Mayor of London has cut the budget for Old Oak Common by 40 per cent – despite his claims of increased spending – putting the building of thousands of homes at risk.
The project, which will provide thousands of homes on industrial and waste land in west London, has been handed £6.9million by the Mayor in this year’s budget, along with a £2million contingency fund delivered if they meet certain targets.
The Mayor has tried to claim this as an increase in spending, comparing it to the original £5.5million approved in the previous Mayor’s last budget.
BUDGET: Mayor keeps ‘Olympics tax’ after Games debt is wiped
– Sadiq Khan using loophole to raise cash for his unbalanced budget
The Mayor of London is continuing to impose an ‘Olympic tax’ on Londoners – even though the debt of the Games has been wiped.
The tax, known as the Olympic precept, was set-up before 2012 to help pay for the Games and the associated regeneration projects.
During his electoral campaign, Sadiq Khan pledged to drop the tax once the funding was recouped from the taxpayer in 2017. However, in his first budget it has emerged he is continuing to collect the money.
London Assembly member Gareth Bacon says the Mayor is using a loophole that allows him to spend the cash on other projects, even though the Games has been paid for.
‘Clumsy’ ULEZ extension will not tackle worst-polluting areas despite costing £780million
– Extension will only improve air quality by an additional 10% – original ULEZ will see 51% reduction
– Projected additional cost of £780million – £220 per household
– Money could buy 2,600 hybrid buses for same impact on emissions
– Report calls on Mayor to keep original ULEZ and suggests alternative additions
The Mayor of London’s proposal to extend the ULEZ is a clumsy policy that will fail to tackle pollution hotspots and will penalise drivers and businesses in non-polluting areas, a new report shows.
‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, by Gareth Bacon AM, calls on the Mayor to adopt an alternative approach aimed at tackling the worst-hit areas where pollution is actually affecting people’s health.
A similar targeted policy in Oxford Street saw emissions fall by a third in just 12 months and the original ULEZ, focusing on central London, is predicted to cut harmful emissions by 51 per cent.
Rail Devolution: Sadiq Khan ‘abdicating responsibility as Mayor’
In throwing his toys out of the pram and refusing to co-operate with the government, Sadiq Khan has ruined any chance we as a city had of taking control of mainline rail in London.
Instead of seeking to address concerns the government had over his ability to take on these services, he has thrown a tantrum, shown his complete ineptitude at this level of politics and proved the government right.
He was given an opportunity to help shape the future of mainline rail but, with his pathetic refusal to take a seat at the table, Sadiq Khan has abdicated his responsibility as Mayor.
This is disastrous news for commuters desperate for improved services who deserve to have their political representatives putting their views across at the highest level.
The Mayor resorts to mud-slinging rather than addressing the T-Charge facts
Sadiq Khan appears to be blindly ignoring the facts put in front of him by his own researchers at TfL.
Under assessment by his own people, the Mayor’s flagship air pollution policy is predicted to have only a ‘negligible’ impact on air quality, reducing poisonous NOx gasses by just 1-3%.
Unfortunately for Londoners, rather than attempt to address any of the points I have raised, the Mayor has simply resorted to mud-slinging.
Londoners will no doubt be disappointed to see the Mayor fail to defend a policy that will cost 9,000 drivers a combined £23million a year. What we need, instead of politicising the environment, is a sensible policy that actually tackles air pollution.
T-charge will cost Londoners £23million a year for ‘negligible’ improvement in air quality
– TfL predicts just a 1-3% reduction in NOx (nitrous oxide) emissions
– 9,000 drivers every day set to be hit with £10 charge
– Small businesses with older vehicles will be hardest hit
The Mayor of London’s T-charge will cost Londoners £23million a year despite having only a ‘negligible’ impact on pollution, it has been revealed.
Transport for London’s own assessment concludes the £10 daily charge for vehicles that are over ten years old will save just 1-3% of NOx (nitrous oxide) emissions – a figure described as ‘negligible’ by TfL.
The assessment also concludes the anticipated reduction in air pollution will be ‘low’.
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