Future of Wallington Police Station

As you know from my earlier postings, the Metropolitan Police are consulting on the future of police stations across London.

The consultation includes the future of Wallington Police Station and it sets out proposals for the future location of Safer Neighbourhood Teams, custody centres, patrol facilities, front counters and office accommodation in each borough.

Jayne, Richard and I have gained assurances from the Police that Wallington Police Station will not close until new facilities that are at least as good and open for longer are operational. And I have also taken action to protect the police station building from inappropriate development by getting it ‘locally listed’ by Sutton Council.

I would like to know what you think of the proposals, so please click on the image above, download the file and fill in our survey. Then return it to me as soon as you can. Thank you.

February Travel Survey

In February I asked readers of my blog to let me know how they normally travel by filling in an online survey.

I wanted to know the main travel choice that people made, but because you might be like me and use the car and train or bus and bike, I made it possible to tick more one box.

In response to the question: “How did you travel to today? Did you use the car or the bus, walk to the train or cycle to the tram?” you said that most journeys were by car (41%), with the train (29%) being the second most popular way of getting around. Walking (18%) made up about a fifth of all journeys, but I can't tell from the responses whether this is walking alone or possibly walking to the train station. Most surprising was the number of journeys taken by bike (12%), which was far higher than I expected. No one said that they use the tram.

11 people completed the survey, and I know that it isn’t statistically valid sample – but the responses are interesting.

I will post a new survey soon. Do you have any suggestions for the subject?

A real vote on Europe

As a Liberal Democrat, I firmly believe that we should have a real vote on Europe - whether we should be in Europe or out.

Last Tuesday, Lib Dem MPs tabled an amendment in the House of Commons on the Liberal Democrat proposal for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

We believe that the European debate has poisoned Britain's politics for too long. If we are to look to the future and tackle the new global challenges such as climate change and international terrorism we need to decide once and for all whether that future lies within the European Union, or outside it.

As you probably know the arcane procedures of the House of Commons meant that MPs weren't given the chance even to debate the matter. The Deputy Speaker has blocked the opportunity of a vote on this in Parliament, and all the Conservatives are proposing is a limited referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

However, the public back our position by a margin of 2:1: according to Ipsos MORI twice as many people think a referendum should be on whether we stay in Europe or not rather than only on the Lisbon Treaty.

We want that real referendum because if Britain is to tackle important global issues like climate change and terrorism, we need to decide once and for all whether our future lies within the European Union, or outside it.

In that referendum campaign we will argue long and hard for Britain's vital place in the EU.

Please support our challenge to the Government and the Conservative Party to give the public a real choice on Europe by signing our petition. The petition can be found here http://ourcampaign.org.uk/europe