Leonie Cooper, Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth

Leonie Cooper, Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth, provided an update on the work of the London Assembly. The Assembly consists of 25 members, and Leonie was elected in 2016 and 2020 to represent Merton and Wandsworth. The Assembly’s role is to hold the Mayor of London to account in the areas where he has responsibility. The Assembly has plenary sessions twice a month with a focus on a key area, such as police, transport, or London 2012 legacy and then at the Mayors Question Time each month each Assembly Member has five mins to ask a question on any topic.

Leonie is lead Labour party lead for Environment and now Chairs the Oversight Committee that focuses on staffing and business of the whole Greater London Authority (GLA). Committees can undertake investigations and make recommendations. The Oversight Committee will be looking at pension funds for the Metropolitan Police, GLA, Transport for London and London Fire Brigade to see how investments are being managed. The Committee will also look at Green Bonds, with Mayor putting in £90m to lever in additional private funds to help achieve Net Zero.

Other big issues include Metropolitan Police with Sir Mark Rowley taking over as the new Commissioner and will be facing Assembly Members tomorrow to talk about the strategy for the Met including staffing, estates, and internal culture of officers. There is a lot to be done to regain public trust.

London Fire Brigade HMI report also found there was a need to change culture and other changes are being made in response to the Grenfell disaster including new equipment and policies.

Transport for London has been in an ongoing fight between City Hall and Department for Transport. TfL funding has been entirely from fares income since 2018 so COVID had a huge impact on income levels. Central government has funded other travel bodies without conditions but for TfL there have been a lot of difficult conditions to qualify for funding. TfL has recently consulted on extending the Ultra-Low Emission Zone to cover the whole of London and reducing bus services in central London and we are waiting for results to be published.

Next plenary is on the Cost-of-Living crisis and Leonie will be asking about improving energy efficiency.

A resident said buses during school travel time being very busy especially 57 and 200, and this was causing problems getting on. Leonie said she is happy to raise this with Deputy Mayor Seb Dance. The central London bus cuts do not directly impact Merton but we are unlikely to see increase in number of services. A resident asked if buses could cover part of route during peak time and Leonie said that this depends on turning the buses and capacity.

A resident said they did not know there was no government funding for TfL and Leonie said the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson, did a deal to offer up the TfL operating budget as austerity cuts to government before leaving office. This also means that public transport users subsidise road maintenance in TfL roads. £500m is paid in Vehicle Excise Levy by Londoners but none of that comes to London.

A resident asked who pays for the Freedom pass and Leonie explained that Boroughs pay for over 65s and disabled passes whilst the Mayor pays for 60-65 year old passes and this element is under pressure from Department for Transport deal. About £8m a year is paid by Merton Council into the scheme.

Cllr Macauley asked about what was being done to tackle violence against women and girls. She said women in Lavender ward were worried about safety walking home from Colliers Wood tube station late at night and asked what can be done to get more police onto the beat. Leonie said when Safer Neighbourhood Teams were introduced by Mayor Livingstone there were three PCSOs, two PCs and one Sargent, but the austerity reduction in numbers mean this has been reduced. Since 2016 Mayor Khan has put more money into the Met and the Government commitment in 2019 or recruiting 20,000 new officers means an extra 6000 should come to London. We have still not had these officers so numbers are still not at the level needed. Even the Home Office acknowledges the is a £200m shortfall on the grant for the Met. The Mayor has Violence against Women and Girls strategy but the Met still stretched thin, and still has to focus on a range of other issues. Leonie meets with Cmdr Elizabeth Chappell, Borough Commander for Merton, Kingston, Richmond, and Wandsworth and asks her about vacancies every time.

A resident asked when the session on Green bonds will start and Leonie said in November.