News from Dee Doocey at the London Assembly - Christmas 2008

Published on Tue 16th Dec 2008

News from Dee Doocey at the London Assembly - Christmas 2008

Life at City Hall

First of all, may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The question I am most often asked these days is, "What's Boris like?" My answer is that he is very similar to Ken. They are both very charismatic, great showmen, and can charm an audience. However, beneath the bonhomie they are both steely, determined and, I suspect, quite ruthless. However, on the positive side I have found it much easier to interact and communicate with his senior Mayoral advisors. This is in direct contrast to Ken's advisors who were completely impenetrable.

Meanwhile, our work of holding the Mayor to account continues and this newsletter reports some of the issues I have been involved in. I welcome your comments and feedback, so do get in touch if I can help in any way- contact details are at the end of this newsletter.

In this edition

1. Police

2. Olympic Games

3. London Development Agency

4. Out and about

5. Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism committee reports

6. Get in touch

1. Police

Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) - The Mayor took over as Chair of the MPA on 1st October, and all the committees were restructured.

Policing the Olympics - I have been elected as Chair of the Met's Olympics committee, which is responsible for overseeing the planning, development and implementation of the policing arrangements for the Olympics. As part of this role, I now sit on the Home Office Olympic Safety and Security Strategic Steering Group, which is drafting a security budget for the Olympics for ministerial agreement by early next year.

Police stations - The Met is proposing to close certain police stations which are considered no longer 'fit for purpose'. The plan is to replace them with new facilities which will "deliver a more effective and locally focused service". Part of the plan is also to build single custody centres for each borough. Some London boroughs are very concerned about the Met's proposals, while others have welcomed as long overdue the proposals to upgrade facilities. A new panel of three members, including me, has been set up to address the issues raised. Our job is to "review and as appropriate lead on the development of a revised estate strategy and supporting documents, which reflect the outcomes of the consultation undertaken". We will be holding a series of meetings with Borough Commanders and others over the coming weeks, which will inform our views on how best to proceed. If you want any further information on what is planned for your local area, please get in touch.

Dangerous dogs - An increasing problem in London is the use of dogs as weapons. In 2006/7, the Met seized 173 dangerous dogs. This year, the number is likely to be over 800. This costs the Met over £2 million a year in kennelling costs while magistrates decide the fate of the dog. The current law, the Dangerous Dogs Act, does not address the problem because it targets the animals rather than the owners. Dog attacks continue and the victims, especially small children, often sustain horrific injuries and can be left scarred for life. We need firm action. As well as changes to legislation, we should consider reintroducing dog licensing and making training for owners compulsory. Most importantly, the police, local authorities and animal charities must work in partnership to tackle the problem. Following discussion at the Assembly, the Mayor has agreed to set up a dangerous dogs action plan for London.

2. Olympic Games

Economic benefits - People in outer London boroughs used to complain that inner London boroughs would benefit most from the 2012 Olympics. However, the current economic climate and the prospect of guaranteed contracts for business and jobs for Londoners seems to be changing this perception. One reason for this may be the fact that the Games will generate 75,000 contracts, worth £6 billion. More than two-thirds of the contracts already let have gone to small and medium sized businesses. There are currently around 3,000 construction jobs on site and this will rise to a peak of 9,000. The huge shopping centre at Stratford, due to open in 2011, will provide an additional 18,000 jobs. This is welcome news in the current economic climate.

Culture and the Olympics - The Mayor has recently reformed the London Cultural Strategy Group, and launched his cultural priorities for London (see: http://www.london.gov.uk/lcsg/culture.jsp). The plans include a £1.4 million '2012 London Cultural Skills Fund', administered by the London Development Agency and the Arts Council. This will provide grants of up to £50,000 to not-for-profit arts and cultural organisations in London, to build their capacity and make the most of the opportunities the 2012 Games will bring. The first round of funding has closed, but a second round opens in January. More details can be found on the LDA website: http://www.lda.gov.uk/server.php?show=nav.00100l002

Commitments to disabled people - A key element of my work on the Olympics is to try to ensure that spectators with disabilities can enjoy the Olympics as much as everyone else. I was therefore delighted to secure two commitments from Lord Coe when he appeared before the London Assembly last month. He promised to examine my suggestion to allow people who are 'blue badge' holders, with tickets for the event, to drive to venues using the dedicated Olympic lanes, which will be set up for the duration of the Games. He also agreed that the forthcoming ticketing strategy for the Olympic and Paralympic Games would look at ways of providing concessionary tickets not only for disabled people but also for their carers.

3. London Development Agency

The London Development Agency is now under new management and has fundamentally changed the way it operates. The LDA previously gave grants to a wide number of organisations in London but will now operate primarily through the Boroughs. The focus will be on skills, jobs and growth and it plans to invest a further £23 million in business support. This will include help and support to start-up companies and small and medium sized businesses that have good prospects and provide regeneration benefits. One of the major challenges identified is to ensure that individuals and businesses know how to access help and advice in these challenging conditions. The LDA has launched 'Keeping London Working', which gives clear advice on who can help and how to get in touch with them. Details available at: www.lda.gov.uk/keepinglondonworking

4. Out and about

In the past few months, I have attended and spoken at local events, to business leaders in the West End, and to a group of schoolchildren from Turin at City Hall. But one of the most interesting events I attended was the launch of One World Action's 'More Women More Power' campaign, which aims to get more women into politics. Although women make up more than half of the world's population, less than a fifth are decision-makers.

I drew attention to the dreadful difficulties that some women have to endure and cited an article in the New York Times about a cabinet member in the Pakistani government, who last week defended the torture and murder of five women and girls who were buried alive (three girls wanted to choose their own husbands, and two women tried to protect them). "These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," he said. I also said that the UK had no reason to be complacent since such horrific practices as female genital mutilation and child trafficking are still taking place here.

One World Action believe that increasing the representation of women and their participation in politics will help to end centuries of discrimination, and is essential in the fight against poverty worldwide. More details of the 'More Women More Power' campaign are at: www.oneworldaction.org/what_we_do/announcements_events/campaigns.htm.

5. Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee reports

The London Assembly's Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism committee has recently released the following reports:

Swimming pool provision

The committee's report found that nearly 3 million people in London are a 20-minute walk away from their nearest pool. And in 11 boroughs, more than half the population lives more than 20 minutes from a pool. This is often made worse by poor public transport in the outer London boroughs. We have made a number of recommendations to help the situation, such as increasing the use of temporary pools and opening more school pools to public use in the evenings and at weekends. The government has pledged £140 million to provide free swimming for young people and the over 60s. But there is no point promising free swimming if there is nowhere to do it!

Download the full report here:

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/culture/swimming-pools.pdf

London Legacy Plan for Sport

The committee has done a lot of work to investigate the best ways of encouraging more young people into sport. The Mayor's assumption seems to be that young people can be encouraged into sport through schools and colleges. But this ignores the fact that large numbers of young people are not in the education system. We talked to many of them, who told us "young people aren't hard to reach; they're just easy to avoid." Our work will feed into the forthcoming Mayor's London Legacy Plan for Sport (due to be published next March). It is essential that this sets out a clear strategy for how the commitments for a sporting legacy will be achieved, and is clear about how this will be funded.

Download the full report here:

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/culture/sporting-legacy-young-londoners.pdf

Economic seminar

On 10th December, the committee held a successful seminar at City Hall on London's response to the changing economic situation. The focus of the event was the role that the Mayor and the London Development Agency can play to support London's economy, to give 'ordinary' Londoners an opportunity to hear from and put questions to a panel of experts. A capacity audience of 160 Londoners heard Will Hutton, Anatole Kaletsky and Nicola Horlick make some provocative opening remarks and present some challenging questions to our panel, which included the London Development Agency, the CBI, the London Chamber of Commerce, the City of London, and the Federation of Small Businesses.

The key message from the seminar was a general agreement that 2009 will be a really difficult year but 2010 should be better. But it's not all doom and gloom, and London is lucky to have some exciting opportunities, particularly the Olympics and Crossrail.

A report of the seminar will be published in the New Year.