Leonie Cooper, Assembly Member Merton and Wandsworth

Leonie Cooper, Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth provided an update on the work of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The Assembly is not using City Hall unless chairing meetings. Staff have been redeployed to support the COVID response including the Nightingale build. The Assembly has now moved on to recovery work. Casework changed to lots of COVID related issues. Dons Action Group and lots of other volunteers have done amazing work.

Leonie said that a reduction in business rates and council tax as well as fare income for TfL has had huge impact. Fare income has recovered slightly but not enough to finance the network. As a result TfL has negotiated two tranches of financial support from Government. Mayor of London income has dropped by £500m so needs to make significant cuts across budgets. This includes moving out of City Hall as the owner has not agreed to drop the rent. The Mayor and the Assembly will be moving to the ‘Crystal’ in Royal Docks near the cable car.

The Mayor was planning to spend £50m on green project which has been reduced to £22m. There is still a grant fund available for community energy projects with a 11 January deadline for applications.

Leonie chairs the Economy Committee which has been investigating COVID impact on businesses, high streets and individuals. They have written to Government asking them to support particular sectors including culture, hospitality, and aviation.

Chris Edge asked about polluting diesel buses in outer London. Leonie said there is a £800m upgrade programme to make sure all buses operate at Euro 6 and a programme of replacing older buses. Leonie offered to check with TfL for monitoring data for RP to see if there has been any change. There is a map of Air Quality Monitoring across London. Leonie pointed out that different boroughs have introduced emissions based charging. ULEZ compliance levels have been quite high and the extension should help. Change is painful but has been brought in gradually, and the impact of Air Quality is serious.

A resident said that the Mayor might be short on cash but still able to find money for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle infrastructure. There has been opposition to some of these in Wandsworth and around London. Leonie explained that the funding came from Department for Transport through a fund allocated quickly which meant the use of Emergency Traffic Orders and consultation after the installation of schemes. The lack of consultation caused a lot of problems and is not the way the Mayor or TfL would want to do things. The LTNs in Wandsworth were all in Tooting across 6 wards with insufficient signage and little warning. It is essential to consult people in advance and make sure people know of the plans. Lots of suggestions from residents have been submitted to TfL to adapt changes, and the Tooting ones could have been adapted rather than taken out. Police and Fire Brigade have also been involved in discussions. Important to take residents with any major changes.

Councillor Crowe said that the cause of much of his case work often relates to the development of London and the challenges for services. Leonie said there are very large housing targets from national planning framework, London plan and local plan. Case work also involves a lot on homelessness and people struggling to afford a home. There is an issue of over development of expensive dwellings, for example on Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets, but we still need more social rented accommodation to make sure those on low incomes can still live in London. We need the Secretary of State to sign off London Plan as it gives us more controls over issues like environmental impact.