Caroline Pidgeon

Leyton & Wanstead Liberal Democrats last Friday hosted a public meeting about the expansion at which London LibDem MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford and London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon spoke and a debate was held. Campaign groups 'Fight the Flights' and the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN) were also represented.

Newham Council recently agreed a more than doubling of flights from London City Airport from the current level of 73,000 flights a year. They are permitting 120,000 by the end of this year and 170,000 by the end of 2010. It is in fact believed (by Fight the Flights) that a further bid for 217,000 flights is contemplated, which would be a tripling of present capacity.

Road safety issues for bus passengers on Station Road were top of the agenda when Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Transport Spokesperson, met Chingford residents outside Chingford bus and rail station earlier this week. Caroline Pidgeon visited the site after an invitation from Geoff Seeff, the prospective parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green.

After the meeting, which was also attended by officers from Transport for London (TfL) Caroline commented:

"It is deeply worrying that passengers are required to get off the 97 and 179 buses on Station Road itself and then have to cross a busy road from between parked cars to get to the rail station. A serious accident is waiting to happen here. We need to find a way for buses to put down passengers safely in the bus station itself with proper provision for wheelchair users.

The Chingford Green by-election on 26th April saw a massive 15% swing to the Liberal Democrats in this ward in Waltham Forest. Caroline went and helped the team on a number of occasions. Achieving over a thousand votes in Iain Duncan Smith’s seat is a real victory and shows what a strong Lib Dem campaign can achieve.

Photo – Caroline out campaigning on election day in Chingford Green.

In an article for the Lib Dem Voice website, Caroline Pidgeon describes how anomalies in the Oyster card system result in Londoners being overcharged by £500,000 a month when they travel on National Rail services:

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 doubt that a huge number of Londoners are not getting the best deal that Oyster could deliver. There are serious anomalies in how the system operates, and the full benefits of the technology are simply not being delivered. Most significantly many people using Oyster on the trains, whether they are Londoners or visitors, are being overcharged, sometimes by quite large amounts. This January alone it is estimated that 32,000 passengers were overcharged a total of half a million pounds.

Read the full article here.