Plus: Our reporting on Asif Aziz's evictions reaches the prime minister, the brief life of Londonmaxxing, and how parking became the latest frontline in Newham politics.
“Car is a necessity not a luxury,” says the Independent candidate for mayor of Newham. Given half of all residents in the borough don’t own or have access to a car, I wonder how he thinks they survive. Does he imagine they are all sat at home, unemployed and starving because they can’t get out to find a job or go to the shops?
He probably lives, works or shops in Beckton. The same Thatcher-era light touch planning in Docklands that allowed Canary Wharf to have much less space for cars than would otherwise have been demanded at the time also let Beckton be developed as a car-centred area with few public transport links.
Last week Sam Freedman suggested in his politics newsletter that Labour should do a better job of picking fights to help their popular policies get more attention, with an example:
“One technique they could use much more effectively is to go after individuals or companies whose behaviour justify their policies. For instance, they could use the mass evictions by Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital (brilliantly uncovered by London Centric) to highlight policies to protect renters.”
From the PMQs exchange you discuss at the top, it seems like Labour have been paying attention.
Very glad you are keeping up the scrutiny on these slimeballs, looking forward to your next report on what’s going on inside Criterion Capital.
I'm not a Londoner and would favour national (rather than local) disincentives to drive oversized tw*tmobiles, based on the volume of the smallest cuboid they could fit in. There's very sensible arguments around pedestrian safety and road damage, but what isn't mentioned much is that drivers of normal-sized cars don't like sharing roads and car parks with them either.
I'm a Newham resident and somewhat confused at some of the promises, given residents already get 2hrs free cross borough parking, and anyone without a car is given an allowance of free parking permits.
There is a very good case for applying ULEZ restrictions to larger and heavier vehicles, because the increased weight causes considerably greater particulate emissions from wear of tyres and brakes, and from erosion of the road surface. So I think the mayor could easily justify doing this on existing environmental grounds.
Re SUVs: Lewisham council has installed such high speed bumps that the undercarriage of normal cars gets inevitably scratched when driving over them with more than 7-8 miles per hour. It is ridiculous, and actually makes the case for driving a SUV for trips where no driving is the realistic transport method.
Is there anything on these proposals around car sharing given the failure of zipcar and the lack of viable alternatives for most of the London citizens? I only read punitive measures in there.
it’s not going to happen in the near to medium future. A big issue with Zipcar was that individual boroughs wouldn’t harmonise standards/rules/costs between each other. This would have to be a Mayor of London/TfL/govt initiative and …….. good luck.
I don’t see Enterprise stepping up to fill the void either, they don’t have the coverage, their pricing is bananas and app feels like surfing the net in 1999.
I understand from a mate at Land Rover that the next Defender is in the works and will be even bigger than the current one. Thoughts and prayers for non-Defender owners in Fulham
Not just Keir Starmer's Range Rover - Sadiq Khan is also transported around by the Met in a Range Rover Sentinel i.e. the armoured much heavier version, followed closely behind by a Land Rover Discovery or Volvo XC90. Not saying he shouldn't but it might be expensive for the Met to replace their fleet to something more aligned with TfL's vision.
Starmer and some other cabinet ministers also use armoured Audi A8s but these aren't British made so in my view are un Prime Ministerial.
Big Scoops elsewhere - but they are both behind paywalls so I can't read them. I am dependent on London Centric's sensible use of the internet that was devised to be free. Question: if a Scoop takes place silently behind a paywall, or in a forest, is it a Scoop at all?
“Car is a necessity not a luxury,” says the Independent candidate for mayor of Newham. Given half of all residents in the borough don’t own or have access to a car, I wonder how he thinks they survive. Does he imagine they are all sat at home, unemployed and starving because they can’t get out to find a job or go to the shops?
He probably lives, works or shops in Beckton. The same Thatcher-era light touch planning in Docklands that allowed Canary Wharf to have much less space for cars than would otherwise have been demanded at the time also let Beckton be developed as a car-centred area with few public transport links.
Last week Sam Freedman suggested in his politics newsletter that Labour should do a better job of picking fights to help their popular policies get more attention, with an example:
“One technique they could use much more effectively is to go after individuals or companies whose behaviour justify their policies. For instance, they could use the mass evictions by Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital (brilliantly uncovered by London Centric) to highlight policies to protect renters.”
From the PMQs exchange you discuss at the top, it seems like Labour have been paying attention.
Very glad you are keeping up the scrutiny on these slimeballs, looking forward to your next report on what’s going on inside Criterion Capital.
I'm not a Londoner and would favour national (rather than local) disincentives to drive oversized tw*tmobiles, based on the volume of the smallest cuboid they could fit in. There's very sensible arguments around pedestrian safety and road damage, but what isn't mentioned much is that drivers of normal-sized cars don't like sharing roads and car parks with them either.
I'm a Newham resident and somewhat confused at some of the promises, given residents already get 2hrs free cross borough parking, and anyone without a car is given an allowance of free parking permits.
It’s easy to promise what’s already there
Crazy that car usage is increasing in London and the direction of travel in some areas
Indeed
There is a very good case for applying ULEZ restrictions to larger and heavier vehicles, because the increased weight causes considerably greater particulate emissions from wear of tyres and brakes, and from erosion of the road surface. So I think the mayor could easily justify doing this on existing environmental grounds.
Interesting idea but there’s no way to quantify this, so unenforceable. ULEZ is based on manufacturer’s published NOx/PM data
Re SUVs: Lewisham council has installed such high speed bumps that the undercarriage of normal cars gets inevitably scratched when driving over them with more than 7-8 miles per hour. It is ridiculous, and actually makes the case for driving a SUV for trips where no driving is the realistic transport method.
Is there anything on these proposals around car sharing given the failure of zipcar and the lack of viable alternatives for most of the London citizens? I only read punitive measures in there.
it’s not going to happen in the near to medium future. A big issue with Zipcar was that individual boroughs wouldn’t harmonise standards/rules/costs between each other. This would have to be a Mayor of London/TfL/govt initiative and …….. good luck.
I don’t see Enterprise stepping up to fill the void either, they don’t have the coverage, their pricing is bananas and app feels like surfing the net in 1999.
I understand from a mate at Land Rover that the next Defender is in the works and will be even bigger than the current one. Thoughts and prayers for non-Defender owners in Fulham
It’s gone a bit J G Ballard if you ask me.
Does the increase in private car “usage” include private hire vehicles?
Not just Keir Starmer's Range Rover - Sadiq Khan is also transported around by the Met in a Range Rover Sentinel i.e. the armoured much heavier version, followed closely behind by a Land Rover Discovery or Volvo XC90. Not saying he shouldn't but it might be expensive for the Met to replace their fleet to something more aligned with TfL's vision.
Starmer and some other cabinet ministers also use armoured Audi A8s but these aren't British made so in my view are un Prime Ministerial.
Big Scoops elsewhere - but they are both behind paywalls so I can't read them. I am dependent on London Centric's sensible use of the internet that was devised to be free. Question: if a Scoop takes place silently behind a paywall, or in a forest, is it a Scoop at all?
archive.is (you’re welcome)
I wonder how the independent candidate is going to fund all his pledges. Particularly as his borough’s finances are likely to be very tight.