Report: Making transport in London truly accessible for all disabled people

 

From the report

 

After decades campaigning for safer streets, more toilets, and a transport network for all Londoners, yesterday Caroline Russell AM hosted Transport for All at City Hall to launch the group’s new report, Accessibility Review of the PTAL Index.

 

Produced by Frontier Economics and Revealing Reality with funding from the Motability Foundation, the Accessibility Review measures how transport accessibility is currently classified for planning purposes, and recommends different indicators be used to better serve the needs of disabled people.

 

The only transport access criteria used on a statutory basis in London, a Public Transport Access Level (PTAL) figure measures the level of access to public transport in the capital, and is calculated using several factors: 

 

• Walking distance to the nearest stations/stops; 
• Waiting times at the nearest stations/stops;
• Number of services at the nearest stations/stops; and
• Distance to major rail stations.   

 

Informed through research by and engagement with disabled people and using King’s Cross, Soho and Southwark as test cases, the Accessibility Review builds on these traditional PTAL metrics by suggesting new criteria to more accurately reflect accessibility across London’s transport network.

 

The additional criteria suggested in the report are measures which:

 

• only includes stations or stops with step-free access
• rank less crowded stations as more accessible
• rank stations without toilet facilities as less accessible

 

 

 

Caroline Russell AM speaking at the report launch

 

 

Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell said:

 

If we want to build a city that works for absolutely everyone, then we need to start by understanding exactly what matters to disabled and visually impaired Londoners travelling around our city.

 

I was proud to host Transport for All here at City Hall for the unveiling of their new report, which I hope will provide a much-needed blueprint for improving the way we address and expand accessibility measures in our planning policy.

 

Deborah Persaud, a research participant and Chair of Transport for All said:

 

London should be a city for everyone, but current planning systems result in many disabled people being effectively barred from parts of the city. It’s time Transport for London added accessibility measures to planning calculations, so London can start to be truly open to everyone.

  

A copy of the full report, Accessibility Review of the PTAL Index, can be viewed here.

 

Hope for London's public toilet deserts as TfL announces toilet expansion and improvement plan following Green Party pressure

 

Green Assembly member Caroline Russell is able to make fun at herself over a seeming obsession with toilets but in truth it is her campaigning  success that will have an impact on the lives of many Londoners and visitors to London. 

She deserves congratulations because her persistence has paid off with  the London Mayor announcing plans to expand and improve toilet provision. We know that many people are put off using public transport for longer journeys because they fear that they will not find a toilet when needed.  As an ex-teacher who has taken hundreds of primary age children on trips into London I also know how important it is to be able to find a toilet at short notice for a desperate child!

In it Press Release announcing a programme of expansion and improve TfL said:

Transport for London (TfL) has announced its ambitious programme to increase and improve toilet provision on London's transport network, in support of TfL's Equity in Motion plan to make London's transport network more accessible, fair and inclusive. The plan will see new accessible toilets delivered across the network, and improvements made to many existing facilities.

Earlier this year, the Mayor announced the biggest dedicated investment in toilet provision that London's transport network has seen, totalling £3million per year over five years. This will be invested in improving and increasing the number of accessible toilets on the network.

TfL is committed to making toilets more accessible for everyone and closing the gap in existing toilet provision so that Tube, Overground and Elizabeth line customers are always within 20 minutes of a toilet without having to change train. Following engagement with customers, campaigners and staff, a new programme has been developed to ensure new toilets benefit customers who need them most. Stations were then chosen according to a number of factors, including whether the location is a terminus station, operates night services, has step-free access, high passenger footfall, proximity to other toilets on the network, and onward connections. 

TfL is committed to creating new facilities and enhancing existing facilities, including reopening closed facilities, and improving the cleaning of facilities. Following the study, TfL has shortlisted a number of locations for new toilet provision in the first round of works:

• Camden Road Overground station
• Clapton Overground station
• New Cross Gate London Overground station
• South Tottenham London Overground station
• White Hart Lane Overground station
• Morden Underground station
• Hammersmith Underground station

TfL and the Mayor recognise that the provision of toilets is critical to many customers, sometimes determining whether a customer can travel by public transport at all. This is why TfL is also looking to convert a further four existing non-accessible toilets to accessible facilities within this first phase of the project at Amersham, Green Park and Sudbury Hill Underground stations and Seven Sisters Overground station, improving availability at other busy toilets that are currently misused or vandalised. TfL has also made improvements to more than one-third of London Underground stations with toilet provision in recent years, including repairing faults and re-painting areas.

Construction work to deliver new and accessible toilets at these stations is expected to start at several locations within the next year, following detailed assessments to determine viability.

TfL have a map of existing toilet facilities HERE although I would treat with caution as they may not be available due to vandalism or  misuse, particularly in the evening. This is an extract for our area. The Bakerloo/Overground is particularly poorly served:

 

There is also a searchable site for the whole of the UK which is very much a work in progress with users able to add toilets in their area. LINK

The Brent Council website has a short list of public toilets in the borough LINK:

Public toilet - Brent Civic Centre

Address: Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ  

Public toilet - Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre

Address: Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre, Brentfield, Harrow Road, London NW10 0RG  

Public toilet - Douglas Avenue

Address: Douglas Avenue junction with Ealing Road, Alperton, Middlesex, HA0 4PY HA0 4PY  

Public toilet - Empire Way

Address: Empire Way Toilets, Empire Way, Wembley  

Public toilet - Oakington Manor Drive / Harrow Road

Address: Junction of Harrow Road and Oakington Manor Drive, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 6QU HA9 6QU  

Public toilet - Roundwood Park

Address: Roundwood Park, Harlesden Road, London, NW10 3SH  

Public toilet - St John's Road

Address: St John's Road (junction with Elm Road), Wembley, HA9 7HU  

Public toilet - Sudbury and Harrow Road Station

Address: Outside Sudbury and Harrow Road Station, Harrow Road, Wembley  

Public toilet - Tavistock Road

Address: Car park, Tavistock Road, Harlesden, London, NW10 4ND  

Public toilet - Vale Farm Sports Centre

Address: Vale Farm Sports Centre, Watford Road, North Wembley, Middlesex, HA0 3HG  

Queens Park and  Roundwood Park have toilets connected with their cafes and Barham Park has limited access via the Community Library. King Edward VII toilets near the Park Lane entrance were demolished years ago due to drug misuse  but publicly accessible toilets are planned for the Stonebridge Boxing Club facility if it gets off the ground.

Brent Green Party has previously argued for a Brent Toilet Scheme that would incentivise cafes and retail premises to allow public access to toilets, perhaps through a reduction in business rates.

Camden are advertising for more businesses to join their Community Toilet Scheme:

Join our Community Toilet Scheme

We are looking to expand our Community Toilet Scheme, and work with more local businesses that would allow the public to use their facilities during normal opening hours (without the need to buy goods or services).

We’d welcome interest from anywhere in the borough, but especially from businesses in Kilburn, Camden Town and Bloomsbury.

We would pay an annual fee to members of up to £750 (including VAT).

Email street.environment@camden.gov.uk to find our more and apply.

GLA Call for Evidence: Preventing Violence and Protecting Young People

 

The weekend's stabbings in Wembley Park and Neasden, as well as the death in Croydon, were very much on our minds last night at the Brent and Harrow hustings for the Green Party candidate for the GLA constituency.

The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee chaired by Green Assembly Member Caroline Russell, has launched an investigation into preventing violence and protecting young people. It will consider the root causes of violence affecting young people in London and what the Mayor and Metropolitan Police are doing to prevent violence in communities.

You can submit your own evidence to the investigation.  Details from  the GLA below.

 

How to respond 

 

The deadline for submission is Friday 13 October 2023.

 

The Committee would like to invite anyone with knowledge or experience of violence affecting young people to submit views and information to the investigation, including those working to protect young people and prevent violence, giving you the opportunity to inform the Committee’s work and influence its recommendations. Therefore, this call for evidence is open to all who would like to respond.

 

1.    What are the root causes of violence affecting young people in London?

2.    What role do non-policing solutions, including projects run by youth services, community organisations and charities, play in preventing violence and protecting young people in London? How do these projects help to reduce violence affecting young people?

3.    What more should schools and education providers be doing to protect children and young people at risk of violence in London?

4.    What impact has London’s Violence Reduction Unit had on reducing and preventing violence since it was established in 2019?

5.    How well does the Met work with partner organisations to prevent and reduce violence affecting young people? What more should it be doing?

6.    What actions should the Mayor be taking to build trust and confidence among young people and protect communities that are most impacted by violence?

7.    What action should be taken to engage young Londoners in initiatives to protect and support young people affected by violence?

 

Please send evidence by email to: scrutiny@london.gov.uk

 

https://www.london.gov.uk/media/102723/download

 

What we will do with your responses

The responses to this Call for Evidence will be used to inform the Committee’s discussion with invited stakeholders at its meetings in September and October 2023 and any subsequent recommendations. These are open meetings which will be held in City Hall, and anyone is welcome to attend as an audience member to watch the discussions. They will also be broadcast online.

Following the investigation, the Committee may produce an output in the form of a published letter or report. Information and/or quotations from submissions to this call for evidence may be used in this output, and we will ensure we cite you. We generally inform those who have submitted evidence about the outcome of the investigation in the form of link to a report or output when it is published.

 

London Assembly unites in call for the Mayor to invest in new toilets on the tube - no more crossing your legs and hoping!

The London Assembly has yet again today supported a call from Caroline Russell AM for the Mayor to invest in new toilets on the London transport network – but this time with unanimous, cross-party support.

 

The call comes after a report released by Caroline Russell AM showed that less than a quarter of Transport for London (TfL) stations in zones 1 -3 of London have toilets, with ‘loo deserts’ like the Northern line stretching all the way from Morden to Kennington.

 

 

 

The call has also been supported by campaigners such as Age UK London. The need for a toilet can be a real challenge to older Londoners and those with a medical condition, preventing them accessing all that London has to offer.

 

Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell said:

 

I expect the Mayor to listen and get on with providing new toilets at existing TfL stations. My report has uncovered a hugely uneven picture in the provision of toilets – some lines are flush with them, and others are just crap.

 

When I last asked the Mayor to invest in new toilets, he instead suggested a feasibility study which has taken months to even begin. Londoners need real investment in new toilets now. You can’t have a wee in a feasibility study.

 

I really hope this is the last time we have to come together as an Assembly and call on the Mayor to stop Londoners having to cross their legs and hope.

 

Abi Wood, CEO, Age UK London said:

 

The ability to use the transport network easily can be transformative. Unfortunately, the current lack of toilet provision can make journeys really difficult and in some cases lead people to decide not to make a journey at all. 

 

This ultimately prevents people from doing the things that they need and want to do – we shouldn’t accept that this is just how things are. We fully support calls for more investment in toilet provision on the TfL network. 

 

This is something that all Londoners will benefit from and make our city more inclusive and welcoming now and in the future.

 

Caroline’s report The London Loo League Table was published in August 2023, it draws on data from TfL to analyse toilet provision throughout London. https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-08/TfL%20Toilet%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

Greens question London Mayor on bus driver toilet facilities as Unite explore legal action on industrial bladder injury

 

Wembley Matters recently published a guest post by Lorraine Robertson about the difficulties faced by London bus drivers due to lack of toilet facilities on bus routes LINK.

Now Green AM Caroline Russell has put down two questions for Sadiq Khan for the September 15th session. The first relates directly to some of the issues Lorraine raised: 

A bus driver has raised with me that some bus routes still do not have adequate toilet facilities, with more than 25 per cent of routes not having a toilet at either the beginning of the route or the terminus. There are also inconsistencies in provision of toilets, where facilities are either not open during drivers working hours, toilets are not free or access to them relies on security personal or other staff to access certain buildings. This is a particularly acute issue for drivers who are menstruating, and some very distressing cases have been reported to me that have impacted the dignity of bus drivers. Will you review provision of toilets on all bus routes and make a commitment to having accessible, clean facilities that are open during all the hours drivers are working on all bus routes, to protect the health and dignity of all bus staff?

The second question is specifically about the 206 bus route that runs from Kilburn Park to The Paddocks in Wembley Park:

A constituent has raised an issue with the lack of toilet provision for drivers on the 206 bus route. While there is a toilet near the beginning of the route at Kilburn Park Station, this is not constantly accessible as it requires station staff to open it for drivers. At the route terminus (The Paddocks, Wembley Park) there are no toilets. Will Transport for London (TfL) look into urgently providing a toilet at the terminus of this route?

Meanwhile Sharon Graham, General Secretary of Unite the Union, addressing combined bus workers about their conditions said:

 It is also why we are looking to mount legal cases on industrial bladder injuries many bus drivers have faced for years due to lack of toilet facilities.

It is easy to make jokes about such matters but they are actually serious health and safety and medical issues with long-term consequences.  Many workers are on the road for hours at a time and the decline in the number of public toilets does not help.  Delivery drivers, under pressure of delivery targets,  often resort to carrying bottles to urinate in as they go about their work, easier for men than women, but not ideal for anyone.

A problem that is usually hidden so it is good to seeing it raised as a health and  safety and workers' dignity issue.

 

Greens call for London-wide recycling system to end postcode lottery on what is recycled

With life thrown into chaos over lockdown, and the craze for banana bread baking, Londoners are throwing away more food than the rest of the nation, as well as binning more plastic, warns Caroline Russell AM.

WRAP, an anti-waste charity, found that Londoners were more likely to have higher levels of food waste, with 43 per cent of us admitting to binning food during lockdown, compared with the national average of 27 per cent. 

 

Even worse was the picture of plastics, the Everyday Plastic project found households were averaging 128 bits of plastic waste in a week, up from 99 bits before the pandemic. 

 

Showing the rise in online shopping and food waste 25 per cent more food packaging, as well as parcel bags and PPE items were thrown away.

Earlier this year Caroline Russell found that no London Borough was able to recycle a list of seven common household items. 

 

In January Caroline asked all councils if they could recycle:

• a broken plastic bucket
• crisp packet
• Tetra Pak container
• Aluminium foil
• black plastic food container
• Biro pen 
• and a bike tyre.
  

She found a lack of London-wide oversight means there is no consistency between boroughs, and residents are left confused as recycling rules vary from one borough to the next. 

 

Although most boroughs (29 out of 32) collect six dry recycling streams Caroline found that Havering was unable to recycle any item from the list and two London boroughs – Enfield and Kensington and Chelsea – were only able to recycle one of the items, Tetra Paks.

 

Caroline Russell says:

As this year’s theme for Recycle Week recognises, our key workers include the people who come to take away our waste and recycling every week under difficult circumstances and maintaining safe social distancing.

 

Londoners have not forgotten the impact of plastic waste but with the rise in plastic being binned it means that Government must take urgent action to address plastic pollution at its source.

 

My research from earlier this year found it’s just too hard to know what to do with your rubbish in London. You can recycle bike tyres in Bexley but not Brent, and Hackney recycles foil but Hammersmith doesn’t.

 

Londoners are deeply concerned about plastic pollution. The Mayor should be asking for the power to take control of London’s waste and sort out this rubbish postcode lottery.

 

Green Assembly Member wins TfL over to Green Energy

London’s biggest energy consumer would be running on renewables within the next decade as today, after pressure from Caroline Russell AM, TfL announced they’re looking for greener energy.

Almost exactly a year ago Caroline took the Mayor to task when she uncovered that only 0.01 per cent of TfL’s energy came from renewable sources, despite a target for rail services under the Mayor’s control to be zero carbon by 2030.

At the time the Mayor admitted more needed to be done saying, "You [Caroline Russell] are right, we can do much better."

Today, Caroline Russell says:

This is major news and I’m so pleased that the Mayor and TfL are seriously upping their game and addressing the climate emergency. 

I called the Mayor ‘irresponsible’ over his lack of concrete plans to get to zero carbon by 2030 after he joined me, and the Assembly, in declaring a climate emergency in December 2018. But this is a big step in the right direction.

Although the initial plan is for up to 10 per cent of TfL’s energy to come from renewable sources, that’s still much better than what I found last year. Making London’s hungriest energy consumer green is a great start. 

Now let’s get the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police Service to switch to a 100 per cent green energy supply!

Build support for a London Car Free Day

Over 50 organisations across the capital sent an open letter to the Mayor of London this week requesting he direct TfL to implement an ambitious plan for Car Free Day 2018. The letter asks Sadiq Khan to publicly commit to an ambitious Car Free Day plan for London next September. The groups believe that Car Free Day could be an important catalyst for London to address the public health scourge of air pollution, and to test out car-free zones in the city that can then be made permanently car-free as envisioned in the Mayor’s transport plan. 

The opportunity to both reduce air pollution and bolster local businesses by going car-free has already motivated Oslo to commit to permanently removing private cars from the city center by 2019. In Madrid, private cars will be removed from over 500 acres of the city by 2020 in a bid to boost local commerce and improve air quality. 

Endorsers of the London Car Free Day vision include a host of charities, think-tanks, research groups, businesses, and neighbourhood forums across 15 London Boroughs. According to the letter “World Car Free Day 2018 is a tremendous opportunity to catalyse long-term reductions in air pollution [and] improve London’s transport system.” 

Car Free Day is an annual global event held in cities each 22^nd September which encourages citizens to walk, cycle or use public transport for one day. While individual boroughs like Hackney, Lambeth, Islington, and Greenwich have all hosted modest Car Free Day celebrations in the past, it has never been a city-wide celebration of walking and cycling like it is in Vancouver, Paris, or Brussels. The letter points out that there is even a weekly Car Free Day in Jakarta, Indonesia, a city of over 10 million. 

The Mayor’s new Transport Strategy means that the world is now looking for London’s to lead the global transition to city centres free from private cars. The letter writers consider Car Free Day 2018 as the perfect opportunity to test new models for car-free urban mobility across London. The Day would provide an opportunity to test the air quality improvements of taking private cars out of the city centre. Small businesses across London would benefit from a day with streets full of customers on foot. 

Community supporters flagged the many benefits of hosting a Car Free Day. According to Marco Picardi at Green Westway, a community group working to improve the air quality and mobility options around the A40 flyover: 

“Car Free Day is an opportunity to test the transformative potential of car-free streets. New approaches are needed to address congestion, pollution, safety, and the public health. Car Free Day is a catalyst to make safe walking and cycling part of a daily routine for Londoners.”

Caroline Russell AM, Green Party Member of the London Assembly emphasised:

“No one should be left out of having streets that are safe and pleasant to use – a car-free day would give Londoners the space to breathe.”

“Paris has a monthly car-free day so it is possible for big cities to do this. I want Londoners to have a taste of fresher air and to see that streets can be for people, not just vehicles.”

“It would be great to see London open for walking and cycling to give people the freedom to choose how they want to travel without being intimidated by hostile streets.”

According to Rosalind Readhead, Chair of the London Campaign for Better Transport: 

“There is a huge opportunity to go car-free in central London and convert road spaces to higher-value activities. We already have 6.8 million parking spaces taking up almost 80km sq. across a city where space is at a huge premium. Could we remove parking spaces and build affordable housing or expand public green space? London Car Free Day is an opportunity to ask these questions and to showcase an ambitious vision for more car-free city centres around the world.”

Other supporters think Car Free Day could make London a more liveable city for all residents: “I grew up in Brussels where there has been an annual Car Free Day for many years. The day is a pleasant opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, re-discover the city from a different perspective and get some exercise. There is something liberating and empowering about pedestrians and cyclists reclaiming the streets.” says Helena O’Rourke-Potocki, one the co-founders of Our Air Our Health, a clean air campaign in Tower Hamlets. 

A version of the letter (See below) sent to the Mayor’s office this morning is also on the online petition platform Change.org so that individual citizens from across London can express their support. 

The online petition is accessible here: http://bit.ly/LCFD_petition .

More information

Twitter: @carfreedayLDN #LondonCarFreeDay2018 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carfreedayLDN/

LETTER OF SUPPORT

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