Subject: Questions to the Mayor Report Number: 6 Subject: Questions To The Mayor Report of: Executive Director Of Secretariat 552 / 2004 - Funding to Sutton Police Consultative Group Andrew Pelling Why is the funding to Sutton’s Police Consultative Group so modest? 553 / 2004 - PCG Grants to London Borough of Croydon Andrew Pelling The Borough of Croydon is the most populous borough in London. However, it receives one of the lower PCG grants in Greater London. Why is this? 554 / 2004 - Development of Crystal Palace pool as Olympic venue Andrew Pelling I do appreciate that there are merits in concentrating much of the Olympic activities at one site in East London but what prospects are there for there to be more than just a training facility at Crystal Palace as part of our Olympic bid? For example, could the 50 metre pool at Crystal Palace be developed so that we have swimming sports events at Crystal Palace for the 2012 Olympics? 555 / 2004 - Cost of footwear for police officers Andrew Pelling Do police officers have to pay for their own footwear that they use on duty? If this is the case, why does this policy apply? 556 / 2004 - Job losses in Croydon Andrew Pelling Two major employers pulled out of Croydon in March 2004. Phillips is leaving Croydon after 70 years, relocating 500 posts. Vodafone has also announced that it is to leave Croydon, taking 630 jobs to the Midlands and the North. This followed the loss of 150 jobs at Direct Line at the end of 2003 and the previous closure of the Paynes Poppets factory on the border of Sutton and Croydon boroughs. Why do you feel that Croydon is losing so many jobs and what do you feel could be done to assist Croydon in this significant loss of jobs? 557 / 2004 - Drains in Catford Road, SE6 Darren Johnson Can Transport for London clear the drains in Catford Road, (under the railway bridge, opposite Ravensbourne Park and in the entrance to Wickes in Catford Road). I understand this is a TfL road but requests so far have gone unheeded. 1 558 / 2004 - Traffic signals at junction of Addington Road and Farleigh Road, Croydon Andrew Pelling Thank you for your answer to my question 344/2004. You stated that the London Road Safety Unit will be undertaking an assessment of the effect on accidents of the new junction layout as soon as practically possible. May I enquire what kind of time frame is represented by as soon as practically possible? 559 / 2004 - Safety of traffic light controlled junctions between tram and road Andrew Pelling On 3 March there was a collision between a Nissan Micra and a Croydon tram at the traffic light controlled junction between Croydon Tramlink and Oaks Road. The car was thrown a considerable distance and the driver of the car was airlifted to hospital. On 29 March a van was in collision with a tram at the traffic light controlled crossing between the Croydon Tramlink and Bingham Road, Addiscombe. The van driver was taken to hospital suffering from injuries to his head and knee. Do you feel that the traffic light controlled junctions between tram and road vehicles are safe? 560 / 2004 - Disposal of "spill" from Coulsdon Inner Relief Road Andrew Pelling To minimise environmental disturbance and damage when building the Coulsdon Inner Relief Road, will it be possible to transport spill using the adjacent railway? 561 / 2004 - Zone 4 Monthly Bus Passes Meg Hillier Please advise me about the rationale of abolishing the zone 4 monthly bus pass. How many people buy bus passes? Has TfL raised any additional revenue from the sale of bus passes by increasing the price from £28.50 to £36.50 for bus passengers who travel solely in zone 4 but now need to buy an all zone bus pass? 562 / 2004 - Bus shelter for bus stop outside Fairfield Halls Andrew Pelling Is the bus shelter for the bus stop outside Fairfield Halls in Croydon about to be built? 563 / 2004 - Faulty street lights/illuminated signs in Addiscombe Road, Andrew Pelling On a walk down the length of Addiscombe Road in Croydon on 11 April, a constituent noted a total of 26 faulty street lights/illuminated signs. May I enquire about the frequency of TfL inspections for items such as street lights and illuminated signs and also, once such faults are noted, the expected time span for repair of such faults? 2 564 / 2004 - Centrale Tramstop Andrew Pelling With the opening of the new Centrale shopping centre in Croydon, the ongoing issue of the proposed Tamworth Road Tramstop has been re-ignited. This was an issue I raised with you in MQT 461/2002, yet nothing has been done to agree to the use of the Tramstop that is currently being built by Centrale’s developers and which would provide a convenient boarding and alighting point for Centrale customers in Tamworth Road. One of the main reasons for this failure is TCL’s insistence that adding in this extra stop would unduly effect Tramlink’s operation and efficiency. There are a number of options for solving this dispute to the benefit of customers and I wonder if you could comment on which of them you would like to see implemented and how you would go about doing so. Option A would be to simply stop the Trams at the platform anyway. This would take pressure off other stops, such as West Croydon or George Street, and allow time to be saved on other sections of the Croydon loop that could be used to add in Tamworth Road. Option B change Tramlink’s service agreement to reduce the financial risk on reliability targets. At 99.5% reliability it is already the most reliable public transport in London. Option C allows TCL to change route service patterns in order to improve its efficiency. This will need to be undertaken anyway when Tramlink is extended so undertaking this flexibility now would additionally save time later. 565 / 2004 - Bus stop in St. Nicholas Way, Sutton Andrew Pelling There is a bus stop in St. Nicholas Way, Sutton that took a team of up to 18 workmen approximately 15 months to dig out a 30 yard stretch of lay-by and cover it in its entirety by a shelter. Prior to this building work the buses using the stop simply pulled up to allow passengers on and off the bus, therefore meaning that the stop performed exactly the same function as it does now without the extravagance of this shelter and road alteration. How much did this scheme cost and was it really necessary in the first place? 566 / 2004 - Junction of Station Way and High Street, Cheam Andrew Pelling What are TfL’s current intentions regarding proposals to introduce a no right-turn from Station Way to Cheam High Street? 567 / 2004 - Mobile phone cabbies helping to cut crime Andrew Pelling A pilot scheme has recently been running in Bromley whereby taxi drivers are able to text the Police if they see crime being committed. Are you able yet to determine how successful this pilot has been and are there any proposals to extend this scheme out to the rest of London as a means to cut crime? 568 / 2004 - Achievements Diana Johnson What do you consider to be your achievements since 2000 in each London borough? 569 / 2004 - Devolution and Planning Samantha Heath Is it inconsistent for a regionally elected politician, and supposed supporter of devolution, to use her position in the House of Lords to undermine regional planning policies? 3 570 / 2004 - Housing and Planning Policies Meg Hillier Is the Mayor aware that whilst Simon Hughes is complaining and accusing the Mayor of failing to provide enough new housing in London, Liberal Democrats in Islington and elsewhere are opposing new house building? 571 / 2004 - Key Worker Housing Diana Johnson How will the recent Government announcement of additional assistance for key workers to secure affordable homes assist with the GLA’s housing strategy? 572 / 2004 - Fares Policy Toby Harris When does the Mayor plan to introduce free bus travel for under 18s? 573 / 2004 - SRA Len Duvall What representations has TfL made to the SRA concerning their Kent Franchise proposals ? 574 / 2004 - A2 (Bexley) Noise Reduction Samantha Heath Would the Mayor support the redesignation of the A2 dual carriageway in Bexley as a motorway? 575 / 2004 - Environmental Policy Diana Johnson What contribution has the activity of the Environment Committee had in developing GLA and functional body environment policies? 576 / 2004 - Capital Standard (Enforcement Training) Toby Harris How many borough and functional body officers have so far been trained via the Capital Standard enforcement academy? 577 / 2004 - Royal Parks Constabulary Len Duvall How many officers of the Royal Parks Constabulary are now under the operational command of the MPS? and how many of those are patrolling Greenwich Park ? 578 / 2004 - Police Numbers Samantha Heath How many: a) police officers b) PCSOs c) uniformed security staff d) retired officers engaged in reviewing cold cases e) civil staff involved in investigating crimes or criminal gathering intelligence are there currently, and how many were there in June 2000? 579 / 2004 - Intermediate police rank Jennette Arnold Has any work been done by the MPS on the idea of introducing an intermediate rank between constable and sergeant to enable experienced officers to supervise new officers, probationary constables and PCSOs? 4 580 / 2004 - The London Tram Scheme - Impact on Burgess Park Valerie Shawcross While supporting a new tram for the area residents near Burgess Park are concerned to minimise the impact on the park.