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.

Recording of Brent West General Election Hustings

A joint Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Hustings amd Wembley Muslim Centre Hustings was held yesterday. Only the Green Party and Workers Party candidates accepted an invitation to attend. The Labour candidate, Barry Gardiner, provided a written statement that was read out.

Recordings below. 

Introduction https://youtu.be/0k16LRrQafo?si=Vp8RyeltAyyM8sv8

 

Questions https://youtu.be/aRjLZxH_c94?si=ZV51opzCQDeZe7_6

 

Further Questions https://youtu.be/NftLdUe49As?si=U978FsrGTnMmriOa

 

IJAN Perspective https://youtu.be/5jJBPTtJIRQ?si=I9sNVbdlYdrH85HA

 

Greens call for scaling up actions against Israel, accusing UK government of complicity in killing

From the Green Party 

As Israel appears to be on the brink of an all out assault on Rafah, despite warnings against such action by the UN, Red Crescent and others, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer is demanding the UK scale up actions against the Israeli government until the killing stops. Greens are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel, prosecutions of war criminals and targeted sanctions on Israel’s leaders. 

 Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

It is clear that the Israeli government is refusing to heed warnings about the catastrophic implications of an all-out attack on Rafah. The UK government must now demand that Israel stop the killing, calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must also agree to this ceasefire of course, and release all hostages.  

Decisions made by the UK government - above all its failure, month after month, to call for an immediate ceasefire - have made them complicit in the killing of almost 28,000 people to date, 12,000 of whom are children [1]. 

Israel relies on certain weapon parts manufactured in the UK, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter whose essential components are made here [2]. A Dutch court has today ordered the state to cease the export of F-35 spare parts to Israel. We call on the UK government to follow suit, and suspend all arms export licences to Israel until the killing stops. The UK must also cease all military collaboration with Israel, including allowing Israeli use of British bases and RAF intelligence flights over Gaza.

Greens would also implement the requirements of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign across the UK economy. This would include excluding Israel from international sporting and music events; withdrawing all public money from funds with investments in Israel; and ending beneficial trade arrangements with Israel [3]. 

It is clear that only outside pressure will make Israel stop its mass killing. We can increase the pressure on Israeli leaders by introducing targeted sanctions against key individuals. This would include travel bans and asset freezes on Israel's leadership and cabinet members, in particular those calling for new settlements in Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank. 

Finally, we would encourage UK authorities including the Metropolitan Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to pursue perpetrators of war crimes committed where UK citizens are the victims or where UK citizens are potential perpetrators. 

There are many steps the UK government could take to pressure Israel to stop the killing. Its refusal to do so means that they are implicitly condoning the appalling carnage in Gaza. 

 

Notes

1. Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera 
2. Who Arms Israel? (workersinpalestine.org)
3. This is consistent with the Green Party’s non-violent approach to demonstrating its opposition to breaches of human rights and international law. It is parallel to calls we have made for boycotts of a number of different countries in the past including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, and Qatar.

Toilets, fare concessions, & universal basic income: Greens propose a budget for London’s communities

 From London Green Party

During the annual debate over the upcoming budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group, Caroline Russell AM led her colleagues Siân Berry AM and Zack Polanski AM in proposing a transformative budget amendment to put London’s communities at the centre of Assembly funding. 

Following the decision by other Assembly Members to vote against these urgent investments, Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell said:

 

This budget process has shown exactly how much change seems to be hiding down the back of the Mayor’s sofa. It’s time we put that money straight into London’s communities. 

 

I simply cannot understand why my colleagues elsewhere in the Assembly continue to celebrate the Mayor’s crumbs, instead of pushing to fully fund the initiatives we know Londoners need.

 

We will continue to push for the investment and attention that every high street, commuter, and resident needs here in London.

 

The six budget components proposed by Caroline Russell AM were: 

 

1.      Public Toilet Funding: While we commend the Mayor’s new programme of additional public toilets on the TfL estate, it lacks the ambition of our previous amendments so we aim to increase funding for the TfL toilets programme to build and maintain new, free public toilets. 

 

2.      Fare Concessions: For the older people who have consistently asked for the removal of restriction on their 60+ photocard and Freedom Pass, we will bring back the free travel provisions provided before the pandemic, which the Government made London remove. 

 

3.      Investing in Dead Spaces: We want to build a more resilient local economy by ensuring small businesses and community groups have spaces to grow by putting disused (but still useful) empty office blocks and shops into their hands.  

 

4.      Resident Empowerment: And not just open these spaces but support and empower people to be able to influence local development plans, and to build their own community plans with financing from a resident empowerment fund. 

 

5.      Climate Resilience Review: We will back the work of the London Climate Resilience Review by doubling its budget to £2 million specifically for the key recommendations that include collaborative work and work with communities.

 

6.      Universal Basic Income: And for a community group with a pilot ready to go, fund the essential wraparound support for a pioneering Universal Basic Income (UBI) programme, to fully explore an idea that could be lifechanging for many Londoners.

 

These six proposals could have been fully funded using the following funding sources, none of which would have taken funding away from existing services: 

• £30 million from an increase to the Congestion Charge
• £4.95 million from the Business Rates Reserve
• £1 million from the GLA Climate Emergency Funding Reserve in 2024-25 (£3 million over the next three years)
• £18.255 million from Reserves Earmarked for GLA Services

 

The GLA Group includes: Transport for London; Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, London’s Fire Commissioner, London Legacy Development Corporation, and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation. 

 

A copy of Caroline Russell AM’s Draft Consolidated Budget Amendment can be found here. 

 

 

'Listen to the People' - Green Party Leaders' message to Government and Labour on a ceasefire

 The co-leaders of the Green Party have written to the UK government and the official opposition urging them to "listen to the people” and join international calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

In a letter to both the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly and his Labour counterpart, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Green co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, deputy leader Zack Polanski and Global Solidarity spokesperson Carne Ross set out how the only way to protect civilians is for the fighting to stop.

In addition, they call on both the Conservatives and Labour to throw their weight behind an “internationally arbitrated once-and-for-all settlement” so that “Israeli and Palestinian citizens can live in safety and security with their rights, at last, fully protected.”

Co-leader Carla Denyer said:

The mass civilian suffering we have seen in Israel and Gaza has shocked the world. Over 700 civilians are being killed every day, one child every ten minutes. The dire humanitarian situation is clearly intolerable and must end.

We cannot hear arguments about violence now somehow preventing further violence in future without shuddering. The lives of children cannot be bartered in this way.

We are deeply concerned that neither the UK government nor the official opposition has joined international calls for a ceasefire. It is with deep regret that the Green Party feels the need to point out that at times like these, silence is complicity.

We urge both the government and the Labour Party to listen to the British people, three-quarters of whom want an immediate ceasefire .

In the letters, the Green Party sets out how war crimes have been committed by both sides since Hamas’s horrific attacks on 7 October.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

The awful attacks committed by Hamas on 7 October were brutal violence, and the hostages must be released unconditionally, but the horrific attacks we saw on that day cannot justify military actions that break international law.

There is no military route to long-term safety and security for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, as they both deserve. Instead, there must be a political settlement, based on the requirements of international law and beginning with an end to the occupation.

The UK government should push for an internationally arbitrated once-and-for-all settlement that fully ends the occupation of Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem, in accordance with the requirements of international law.

It used to be the case that international law was the basis of UK government policy, and the positions of both Conservatives and Labour.  It is deeply troubling that this seems to have been forgotten by both government and opposition.  Such an abandonment will do long-term harm to Britain’s already-questionable reputation as a defender of the international rules-based order.

Labour should stop prevaricating and vote in the Lords for Jenny Jones' 'Fatal Motion' to stop government power grab

 

The Green Party's Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter - applicable to Brent?

 We don't have council elections in Brent until 2025 but given the housing crisis and the debate over affordability I thought readers may be interested in Green Party policy on this issue which was publicised in the context of tomorro'w local elections eleswhere in the country.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

We need councillors and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy, where people need them. 

Today, speculators and developers are allowed to chase the biggest profits and ignore local needs. Too many villages and towns have seen large-scale developments take place without the community infrastructure expanded alongside, such as GP surgeries, bus services, cycling and walking networks and nurseries and schools.

What we need is local councils supported to build quality, affordable housing in the right places where people live and work, with the right supporting infrastructure and local facilities.

Our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will simultaneously protect valuable green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing.

We’ve seen how Green councillors have made a difference in Mid Suffolk, where developers are now expected to provide EV points, not connect to the gas grid and provide heat pumps as standard.

The villages of Suffolk and Norfolk are facing the same problems as much of the rest of the country - developers being allowed to build houses local people often can’t afford and failing to ensure local services like buses and GP surgeries get the investment they need.

Developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment and this has got to stop.”

Co-leader Carla Denyer, who is a serving councillor and Parliamentary candidate in Bristol, said:

Up and down the country, people are experiencing the same problems as people here in Stowmarket - homes that are unaffordable to buy, unaffordable to rent and unaffordable to heat. There is a generation of people who are trapped in the private rental market by spiralling rents that bear no relationship to incomes.

To address this, in the short term, we would introduce an immediate rent freeze and eviction ban to prevent people being made homeless in the middle of this cost of living crisis, as the Scottish Greens have already done as part of the Scottish Government. 

In the longer term, we would give councils the power to bring in rent controls in areas where the housing market is overheated. We would also place much stricter controls on the type of new homes bein

Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. That is why our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities.

The Greens’ Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would:

• End the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard

• Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use

• Transform the planning system to:

• Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction

• Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates

• Protect valuable green space for communities

• Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services

• Transform building regulations to ensure: 

• all new private and public sector housing meets Passivhaus or equivalent standards

• house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes.

• Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life

• Introduce rent controls 

• End no-fault evictions

Green Party Conference supports Gary Lineker on his 'entirely valid' point about Tories' cruel approach to asylum policy

 The Green Party has just passed this resolution at its Conference. Unanimous in the conference room and just one against online.

Green Party conference expresses solidarity with Gary Lineker and instructs the External Communicator to call on the BBC to reverse the decision to remove him from Match of the Day. The party believes in the principle of BBC impartiality and is clear the organisation is making a mockery of its own policy in this instance. Instead, they are bowing to party political pressure and undermining free speech in the process.

We believe that the point Gary Lineker was making around the deliberately cruel approach to Conservative asylum policy was entirely valid. The Conservatives’ deliberate stoking of this issue as part of their incessant culture war also serves as a distraction from the urgent humanitarian crisis on our doorstep. The issue of desperate refugees should not be used as a political football.

Time to rebuild housing strategy in wake of axing house building targets, say Greens

 Ellie Chowns, Green Party spokesperson on Housing and Communities

 

The Green Party has welcomed a decision by ministers to axe arbitrary house building targets LINK and have called for future housing development to be led by affordability, quality and environmental standards. 

Green Party spokesperson on Housing and Communities, Ellie Chowns, who is also a Cabinet Member on Herefordshire Council, said:

Councils of all political colours have pushed back against unrealistic top-down housing targets, which have taken decision-making away from local authorities and ignored the views of local people. And where targets have been missed, it has allowed developers to get away with lower quality housing that is less sustainable and less affordable.

It’s time to rebuild a housing strategy that takes powers away from central government and the giant house builders funnelling money into Tory Party coffers and give councils the power to set their own housing targets to meet the needs of local populations. We need the focus of future development to be on building genuinely affordable housing that is good for local people while helping to tackle the cost of living crisis and the climate emergency. 

We certainly do need thousands more new homes but the priority should be on homes for social rent, built to the highest environmental standards so they dramatically cut energy bills and carbon emissions. We also need to prioritise building on brownfield sites and preserve our precious green spaces which are good for public health and for nature. 

All new housing must also be served by high quality walking and cycling routes and much improved public transport services.

'Bills too high, pay too small - we need energy for ALL' 650k petition presented to Downing Street

With a cardboard cut-out of Liz Truss as real one otherwise engaged (Photo: Fuel Poverty Action)
 

Away from the pantomime in the House of Commons, a petition calling for an overhaul of our energy pricing structure was delivered to Downing Street yesterday.. The ‘Energy For All’ petition signed by over 650,000 people, calls for a universal, free amount of energy that would cover everyone’s basic necessities of heating, lighting and cooking. This would be paid for by ending the millions of pounds spent daily on fossil fuel subsidies, windfall taxes on excess profits of energy companies and higher prices for profligate energy use.

The event, organised by Fuel Poverty Action, included a rally and march attended by around 100 people.

 

Stuart Bretherton, Energy For All Campaign Coordinator, said:

 

Millions of people will face fuel poverty this winter, with prices sitting at double what they were last year, and now renewed uncertainty over how high they will climb next year. Energy For All would deliver justice and security to all consumers now and in the future, by ensuring everyone’s basic needs are met and that steps are taken to address the climate crisis. Ordinary people cannot keep footing the bill for crises created by the wealthy, it's time for the big polluters and profiteers to pay their share.

 

In Old Palace Yard, Westminster, the crowd were addressed by speakers including Lord Prem Sikka, Caroline Lucas MP, Clive Lewis MP and Matt Lay, National Officer for Energy at Unison. Also in attendance were representatives of a number of different social movements, NGOs and direct action groups. Speakers from groups that have endorsed the campaign ranged from Disabled People Against Cuts, Tax Justice UK, the National Pensioners Convention and Just Stop Oil.

 

 

 Photo: Fuel Poverty Action

 

 

The march was led by a large ‘Energy For All’ banner while others carried light-bulb shaped placards displaying the same message. Attendees chanted, ‘Energy Pricing’s: Upside Down!’with a cardboard cut-out of Prime Minister Liz Truss standing on her head visualising this call and response.

 

 

Ruth London of Fuel Poverty Action said:

 

In our present system, the less energy you use, the more you pay per unit and the more you use, the less you pay per unit. This is upside down. Energy For All is a plan to turn it rightside up.

 

 Barry Gardiner MP (Brent North) addresses the crowd

 

Over 20 MPs from multiple parties also attended to show their support for the demand. A day prior to the petition hand-in, Early Day Motion 470: Proposed Energy Equity Commission Bill was launched in parliament. The bill would realise some of the key components of the ‘Energy For All’ demand, implementing a Universal basic energy allowance, supplemented by a social tariff and a national street-by-street insulation and retrofitting program.

 

 

Clive Lewis MP said:

 

 I know from listening to my constituents, from knocking on their doors, that they are in dire straits. That’s why I’ve introduced the universal basic energy bill. That bill will ensure that everyone, including the poorest, have up to 90% of their energy needs met.

 

 

Green MP Caroline Lucas (Photo: Fuel Poverty Action)

 

Caroline Lucas MP said:

 

We are here to say cold homes are a political choice and we are here to demand different political choices. It’s not a choice between heating and eating, people can’t do either. We are here to demand that this government puts people and the planet ahead of the profits of the big energy companies.

 

Fuel Poverty Action vows to continue pushing for Energy For All which could deliver energy security to consumers and end fuel poverty, while also accelerating action on climate change. The group will do so online, in parliament and on the streets and invites people of all experiences and backgrounds to join in demanding Energy For All.

 

 

 Further information at Fuel Poverty Action website.

The Greens and Trade Unions - deputy leadership candidates questioned

 

 

For those depressed by the prospect of a summer of debate between the candidates for the Tory leadership, the contest between candidates for the Deputy Leadership of the Green Party may offer some  hope. 

The Green Party Trade Union Group has achieved increasing prominence within the Green Party through its activities in support of trade union struggle and its insistence that the transition to a low carbon economy can only be achieved through working with trade unions. 

Here the four candidates respond to some searching questions from members. 

The candidates are:

• Shahrar Ali
• Nick Humberstone
• Zack Polanski
• Tyrone Scott

 

ELECTION PLEDGES: These Brent Council election candidates are pledging to work to divest Brent’s pension fund from fossil fuel investments - ask your candidates to sign up

 From Brent Friends of the Earth

These Councillor candidates in Brent have pledged to do all they can to ensure that Brent Pensions Fund ends its investment in fossil fuels and invests in a just transition to a zero-carbon economy.

 

Jumbo Chan       Brent Council     Harlesden and Kensal Green      Labour

Iman Ahmadi Moghaddam          Brent Council     Wembley Park    Labour

Mary Mitchell    Brent Council     Welsh Harp   Labour       

Ryan Hack           Brent Council     Brondesbury Park     Labour

William Relton   Brent Council     Willesden Green    Green Party

Simon Erskine    Brent Council     Stonebridge     Green Party 

Martin Francis   Brent Council     Tokyngton        Green Party

 

The list will be updated HERE as more candidates sign up.

 

If you are a candidate and would like to take the pledge, please fill in this short form and you will be added to the public pledge list at the bottom of divest.org.uk/elections-2022.

 

Brent Council invests over £20 million of their pension fund money in planet-wrecking fossil fuels.  This also puts members’ pensions in jeopardy as fossil fuel investments now pose a dangerous long-term financial risk.

Cardiff, Waltham Forest, Southwark, Islington, and Lambeth councils have already committed to divesting their pensions.

 If you have any further questions on this, please contact us at Brent FoE or the UK Divest team at ukdivest@gmail.com. Here is a short guide to divestment which provides some more information on the issue. UK Divest is also hosting a webinar for sitting councillors and prospective candidates on Tuesday 26 April which will explore the moral and financial benefits of divesting from gas, oil and coal. If you are interested Please register here