As of 11 December 2011, the new Metropolitan Line timetable has come in to effect. London Underground Limited (LUL) took it upon themselves to withdraw all off-peak fast services to and from Moor Park and as a result, all off-peak trains now stop at every stop in and out of London. This is not only an inconvenience for Three Rivers District Council residents but it could also affect the livelihoods and the family lives of many of our residents who rely on that service for business and family purposes. I remember when my daughter was younger the train I depended on most to get back home for her bath/bedtime was the first off-peak train from Baker Street. Thankfully I no longer need that service because if I did, I would never have been able to make it home in time. My heart goes out to the many, mainly (but not exclusively) fathers who are in that position. Notwithstanding, whether you have children or not, after a hard days work, the last thing most people want is an additional 15 minutes (or s0) added to their journey. To make matters worse, the alteration to the schedule was done with no consultation with residents, no consultation with local government authorities/representatives and no impact analysis or modelling, etc. LUL simply imposed it.

So after discussion with our Leader , she asked me whether I was happy to propose a motion to full Council on 13 December 2011, to register on behalf of our residents our displeasure at the change of service. This I was happy to do and I am pleased to say that this, my first motion, was carried unanimously with vocal support from all sides of the chamber. Letters have now been sent to Mike Brown, MD of LUL and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Given that Three Rivers District Council is outside of London, and therefore Boris Johnson does not rely on our votes in the forthcoming Mayoral election, I’m not sure what good the latter will do but I’m assured by members of the Conservative opposition group (some of whom claim to know him personally) that they will be making additional representations to him about the change to the schedule. Let’s see what happens, but rest assured I will not let this rest. Having taken the off-peak service a few times since its introduction, I can reliably inform readers and residents that the journey that took half an hour when I first moved to Rickmansworth now took almost 50 minutes – on average 9 minutes slower than in 1922! How about that for progress… I’ll keep readers informed on progress through these pages.

My speech to the Council was as follows:

As of Sunday December 11th as I’m sure all members are aware, London Underground introduced a new Metropolitan Line timetable. According to their own ‘propaganda’ LU proudly proclaim that there will be two extra southbound trains per hour during peak time but there is only a brief mention of how the new timetable will affect the off-peak service. LU in their wisdom have decided that it is necessary to make all southbound off-peak trains run slow from Rickmansworth meaning that they stop at every stop (Moor Park, Northwood, Northwood Hills, Pinner, North Harrow, Harrow on the Hill, Northwick Park, Preston Rd, Wembley Park and Finchley Rd) to Baker St. whereas before, they only were fast from Moor Park to Harrow on the Hill and fast again to Finchley Rd. This means that the Rickmansworth to Baker St. journey that used to take 36mins will now take up to 45mins.

To make matters worse, LU imposed these changes without consultation with our residents or TRDC, no scientific modelling or impact analysis and no trial run. I know I for one will now seek to use the Chiltern Line whenever possible and put up with even more cramped conditions that already existed before the timetable change took place. Like many of our residents, I am someone who often travels during the off-peak times with a small child in a pushchair, so this is something that I like many other residents am not looking forward to.

Over the years, Three Rivers has benefitted and prospered from increasing numbers of people who live and work in London moving to our area (myself included). They have been drawn to our towns & villages due in part to our fantastic schools, our open spaces, our low crime rate, not to mention of course our award winning and excellently run District Council. Access to and from London has also been a major factor and this change to the timetable could have a knock on effect on by making us comparable with towns that on one hand might be further out and have less regular rail service, but on the other, offer a faster service with cheaper house prices…

In conclusion, this timetable change was imposed on us with no consultation seemingly designed to make life easier for those who live closer to London (and therefore have access to alternative tube lines and buses), will see a dramatic reduction in the quality of service enjoyed by our residents for years, and it does not take in to account the impact it will have on the already crowded Chiltern Line. I therefore ask that this motion be agreed by all members and thereby send a message to LU that the residents in Three Rivers believe the new timetable and subsequent changes to our Met Line service to be unacceptable.

By being part of the Lib Dem Candidate Leadership Programme, I am lucky enough to be paired with the Rt. Hon. Don Foster, MP for Bath. This means that on Tuesdays and Fridays I spend the day with Don in the Commons and in his constituency respectively. The pairing works well on many fronts but mainly because of a) my professional and personal background is in media and sport and Don is our party spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport, b) like in Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) where I am a councillor, the Lib Dems control Bath & North East Somerset Council (BANES) and c) the Metropolitan Line and the M25/M4 make access to London and Bath easy…

As well as shadowing Don and learning how he masterly ploughs his way through his ever burgeoning in-tray of casework, I was also fortunate enough to be invited to join the Lib Dem cabinet members in their informal Cabinet meeting. Whilst BANES is a unitary authority (with responsibility for all local government services) and here in TRDC, Herts CC has responsibility for roads, education, etc, I was amazed about how similar many of the issues are. Transport is a (perhaps THE) major issue in BANES and we discussed  the bid submitted to the DfT (with the West of England region) for a major scheme within the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. Whilst in TRDC our transport links are fantastic with easy access to M25 (recently enlarged)/M1/M40, tube/trains, buses and taxis, these are largely legacy  services that have developed over decades. My time in Bath did make me think about their environmental impact and their long term environmental sustainability… I also wondered whether we have enough cycle paths that are well kept and well lit (especially as Herts CC are cutting street light illumination across the county after specified times to save money). It also made me even more determined to get a motion passed at full council to protest against TfL’s plan to increase journey times from Chorleywood, Rickmansworth and Moor Park in to and from London by eliminating the fast train at peak times and replacing it with a much slower “all stations” service (more on that in a further post).

Housing – or the lack thereof – of affordable housing is also a major issue that both BANES and TRDC have in common with both areas surrounded by greenbelt land. BANES does have many more empty houses and a much larger number of ‘brownfield’ sites with potential to convert than in TRDC, but the challenge is to make them a viable business opportunity to a developer whilst at the same time ensuring they (or a significant proportion of them) remain affordable. House prices in BANES remain way above the regional and national average, as they do here in TRDC.

Finally, I enjoyed learning about how BANES conduct their recycling scheme. All their recyclable material goes together in one “box” which is then sorted by the crews and placed by them in to the appropriate section in the vehicle. In TRDC, the onus is on the resident to sort their recyclables by type (glass, paper, plastics/metal, etc.) and place them in their own box, which is then simply carried to the vehicle for disposal in the right section. Both systems have their pros and cons, and a lot depends on the contract with the recycling company and what material can actually be collected/recycled, but it was enlightening nonetheless…

There were many other issues that were discussed such as high speed broadband links, town regeneration and public toilet provision(!) but more on those another time. Suffice it to say that the meeting, along with a lovely stroll through the wonderfully festive Xmas market meant I very much felt at home in Bath and look forward to my next trip there on Friday all the more (although I do wish that 41 years ago they had invented decent heaters to go in VW Campervans!)

My thanks go to Paul Crossley (Leader of the Council) and David Bellotti (Constituency Chair) and my other party cabinet colleagues for organising and allowing me to join their meeting.

(Top to bottom, left to right) Cllr Roger Symonds (Transport), Cllr Simon Allen (Wellbeing), Cllr Paul Crossley (Leader of the Council), Cllr Nathan Hartley (Early Years, Children, and Youth & Deputy Leader), Cllr Cherry Beath (Sustainable Development), Cllr Tim Ball (Homes & Planning), Cllr David Dixon (Neighbourhoods), Cllr Chris Lucas (Three Rivers District Council) & Cllr David Bellotti (Community Resources)

On October 18^th I made my way to Russell Square to show my support for Anti-slavery Day. There I met David, Stacey & Stephanie from Anti-Slavery International (www.antislavery.org) whose knowledge of slavery past and present was incredible. As anyone who knows me will attest, this is a subject very close to my heart because, as is the case with most people of Afro-Caribbean descent here in the UK, my forefathers were slaves… My parents were born in Barbados (as were their parents and their parents before that, probably going back at least 300 years) and whilst the more obvious indicators of slavery are no more (the buying and selling of human beings, the chaining, the whipping, the mutilations and the rapes) the chattel houses and chimney stacks that sit cheek by jowl with the golden beaches and the luxury hotels are a stark reminder of a past steeped in state sponsored beatings, bondage and blood.

I also learned a lot more about modern day slavery and was shocked to hear how there are millions of people around the world who live under the shadow of slavery, and how it exists even in Britain today.  You may recall the case a couple of months ago of Bedfordshire police freeing 24 people allegedly held against their will on a travellers’ site near Leighton Buzzard. Whilst their situation may not have involved the whips and chains of my forebears, five people were arrested under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, for the offence under the act of ‘holding another person in slavery or servitude or requiring them to perform forced or compulsory labour’. Whilst the act is predominantly used to help legislate against human trafficking, mainly of women in to the sex industry, it’s clear that forced labour is not unique to one group of vulnerable people.

So you might be asking what you can do add your support for the eradication of slavery? Well firstly, I’d say check out www.antislavery.org. The site is a huge resource of information on slavery as it existed throughout the ages and as it exists today. Slavery is a blight on our country’s history, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore it (lest we repeat it). By learning from the past we can try to ensure that it never happens again. Secondly, if you live in or near London and/or are planning on watching the Olympics next year then sign-up to their new campaign: Slavery-Free London…

The 2012 Olympics is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our great country and capital, but it’s also an opportunity for criminal gangs and people traffickers to lure desperate people over here for jobs that don’t exist or for clothing/merchandise manufacturers to use forced labour to increase profits. The campaign calls upon the Government and the relevant authorities to ensure that the risks of slavery in connection with the 2012 Olympics are properly addressed. Finally, tell others about it! The more who know the bigger the noise and the better the chance that we can get something done.

So go on, sign up to the Slavery-Free London pledge: http://www.antislavery.org/english/campaigns/slavery_free_london/default.aspx

Whilst sadly we may not be able to rid the world of slavery in one go, at least we can do our best to ensure that the Olympic Games in London is slavery free.

Working hard to make slavery a thing of the past

This year’s Autumn Conference was in Birmingham (ICC and surrounding hotels for fringe events) and was particularly memorable for me personally as I was asked to speak at the Rally on the opening day (more on that later)…

There was a lot of disquiet in the weeks leading up to the event because, due to being in government (and dare I say “unpopular” with certain groups and organisations with an axe to grind), it was deemed necessary to overhaul the registration process and have all delegates’ credentials checked by West Midland Police. This increased security measure meant that some delegates were not cleared until the week before conference, and therefore didn’t book hotels/transportation, etc. – only to find that when they did come to book, hotels were fully booked or priced accordingly. So (apparently) some delegates didn’t go out of protest (but I personally didn’t know or know of anyone who did this). I also expected many more protestors but, overall, there were a lot less than at Spring Conference in Sheffield. I also expected that due to the terrible result in the previous election resulting in the loss of many Lib Dem Councillors across the country there would be a good deal of discontent in the hall. I’m happy to say that if there was any of this sentiment then it was kept very tightly under wraps. In fact, I would say that I didn’t get a sense of any anti-Lib Dem policy, anti-coalition or anti-Nick Clegg feeling at all. I think the phrase that best summed up the mood of the Conference was “business like”.

As I mentioned above, I was asked to speak about how we can and why we should increase diversity within the Parliamentary party in 2015 and beyond. This is because I have recently been accepted on the party’s Candidate Leadership Programme which has been set up to provide a ‘Leadership Academy’ to identify and invest in the next generation of potential parliamentarians. This is a brand new programme and as one of the first recruits I explained the concept to Conference and explained how they are to become the “agents of change” to ensure its success.

In terms of policies, the ones that stick in the mind for me were as follows:

1) Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) and Work Capability Assessments (WCA) – calling for the government to implement the recommendations of Professor Harrington’s review in to WCA and to end arbitrary time limits in to how long ESA can be claimed (passed)
2) Higher Education Fees for Part Time Students – calling for the government to equalise loan repayment conditions between full and part time students (passed)
3) Protecting Individuals & Communities from Drug Harm – calling for the government to set up a an independent panel to carry out a risk assessment on the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and to consider reforming the law along the Portuguese model (passed)
4) Science not Stigma – calling for the government to end the ban on men having sex with men (MSM) from giving blood (passed)
5) A Green Stimulus for Economic Recovery – calling for the government to put stimulating the environmental economy at the heart of its growth programme (passed)
6) A New Purpose for Politics: Quality of Life – calling for the government to put ‘quality of life’ at the heart of the planning framework and allow local people to call for a referendum on the proposed sale of any public open land, including school playing fields (passed, controversially!)

There were many other policies that were debated but one observation I would make is that there was precious little controversy and most motions were passed without too much trouble.

The fringe events were the usual mix of special interest groups and lobbyists but there seemed to be a lot more of them and a higher quality this time – undoubtedly as a result of being in government (this was echoed by the size and quality of the exhibition hall). Social Liberal Forum and Hacked Off Campaign’s fringe event was the highlight of the fringe because Hugh Grant was there and everyone just LOVES a celebrity! This could also explain why the Newsnight broadcast with Jeremy Paxman was also massively oversubscribed. The HS2 Challenge Group fringe was also very well attended and I also attended an RSPCA event and a GovNet Communications fringe entitled Reaching out Beyond the Party amongst quite a few others.

In short, the Conference was a huge success with lots of discussion and debate on policy. What makes a change of course is that party policy can now actually become government policy. Once again, despite the best efforts of the assembled journalists to unearth it, there appeared to be very little public dissent. To use a cricketing metaphor, it’s almost as if after a dodgy start and a few appeals, we’ve gotten used to the pace and the action and are now starting to express ourselves. Let’s hope we can stay in long enough to rack up a big score and not fall for the googly!