London budget 2019-2020

I’d be happy to take Sadiq out on my bike commute so he can see what a disaster West London’s roads are for cyclists and drivers alike, travelling through 4 boroughs, seeing what the “Berlin wall” approach to cycling planning is doing to London. This is no way to run a city.

Cycle lane planning should be made obligatory part of all planning strategies. Time and time again I see roadworks and works around new developments with no proper cycling infrastructure. Ref Westfield W12 - shocking absence!

Cycle lanes should be set up initially with temporary markings and “armadillo” road furniture to test out planning and trial solutions for all to use, rather than as permanent, expensive, inflexible concrete solutions. Ref Bayswater Road section around Lancaster Gate - utter chaos with 1 year construction works, and an ineffective solution causing congestion and pollution for cyclists and motorised drivers alike. Gawd knows what it cost, Has anyone from WCC actuallly seen what happens to cyclists along this road now? Total failure of design. Take a look!

The London Mayor needs total control of transport. The health and safety of Londoners is under threat from disjointed politicised individual borough transport strategies, which are often at odds with the mayoral strategy. Furthermore, there is little effective implementation of anything to support safer cycling, despite the rhetoric. London needs a total strategy and londonwide implementation plan to make effective strides, such as:
- consistent London-wide residents parking permit of say £500 (with discounts for essential drivers) to discourage needless car ownership
- effective curbs on gas guzzlers
- proper air pollution monitoring at 1m high (prom level) with results visible on signs on key roads, especially near schools
- better Road signs to discourage parking abuses which cause congestion
- free 5 min parking on ends of side streets near local shopping areas
- more frequent bus services on routes affected
- total effective network of cycle lane and funds to ensure effective enforcement of cycle lane abuse by drivers who park in them, with cooperation from police, revocation of Eric Pickles’ amendment which has to date rendered “cycle lanes” unenforceable
- free bikes for all London school children, training and support for families to encourage more cycling

What does the funding received from the Government for the provision of affordable homes count as if not part of the budget (or am I getting confused with spend? Is this because it's provided for a specific purpose and cannot be directed elsewhere. I would appreciate a fuller picture of all monies within the mayor's control to have a more balanced picture.

Thank you for planting more trees.  I appreciate more focus on improving the air quality - this is a serious issue for our family.    Although, another focus would be legislation prohibiting commercial transport vehicles from idling.  Step 2 would be an iniative to reduce or eliminate petrol vehicles and more tax breaks for electric vehicles.  including, initiatives to encourage truck and car manufacturers to produce more zero emission/electric vehicles.  All of these, I believe would creeate a dramatic shift in air quality.  

If the Mayor is so short of money that he feels the need to raise council tax why doesnt he cancel all the wage rises and extra staff he has employed at city hall??

Stop spending so much on PR.

Invest that money in pan-London youth and homelessness support services.

Decommision council services and save all that admin costs by having a centralised funding model and delivery system that can use the current council offices as "regional delivery hubs" or something like that.

To help the environment, I think private motor traffic should be much more heavily discouraged.  The congestion charge should be widened to the M25, and the cost in the current central area should be increased to £50 per day.

There will allow for more pedestrian friendly roads: widened pavements, safer crossings - partly by more zebra crossings, and reduced speed limits.

Isn't it about time the Mayor started using his budget more wisely instead of vanity PR projects to try to show him in a better light.  Better still - let's have a new Mayor

I read with interest that the living London wage should be £10.50. As pensioner having paid NI (pension and health) since the age of 16 I am getting £3.88 based on a working week of 36 hours. How is this right and why are we blamed for being a drain on the economy when we and our employers have paid our National  Insurance contributions our whole lives. Not our fault successive governments have used the money for other things.

Mayor of London always complains at the lack of government funding, is that because he is labour and government  conservative.

How can it ever work with 2 opposite political views ??????

Fares have only been frozen for occasional users. If you use the bus and tube to get to work everyday (as I do) then my fares have risen yet again as the weekly cap has risen so I pay more each week than I did last year and the year before.  The fare 'freeze' has had no effect on me and saved me nothing.  It is still costing me more.

So, in effect, the Mayor is penalising those of us who use public transport regularly and benefiting those that don't. Surely he should be encouraging people to use public transport regularly but he isn't.  I will now look to work from home one day a week (because I am able to) and so pay less than I did last year. This is what a lot of my colleagues have done which may explain some of the reduction in tube use.

Also what is the point of a monthly travelcard when some months are longer than others? There should be 4-weekly travelcards instead and the cost of travelcards should be frozen instead of one-off fares.  The Mayor will argue that he cannot set the cost of travelcards but that is what he should be looking to change rather than freezing one-off fares to benefit people who rarely use public transport.

To the organizers of the Talk London budget challenge:

I regret that I do not wish to continue completing surveys where you continue to ask name, age, address, and, most unnecessarily, ethnicity.  On the budget challenge on the cost of policing, there are about a dozen ethnicity categories.  Numbers will be so small in most of those categories, they would be statistically meaningless in your eventual analysis.  There is no need for detail on ethnicity beyond black, white and other.  And how about anonymous questionnaires? -- people might be tempted to provide more personal experiences.

Thank you.

Spend more on the environment and clean air, and more police officers to tackle violent crime but what about youth workers and better provision to keep kids off the streets? Adult education provision is good especially ESOL , Preserve libraries! I agree that the present borough system is not working well - it is a postcode lottery what services you receive!