| Transport for London 2005 |
| Tuesday, 11 July 2006 11:24 |
|
On Monday I attended my usual drop in advice
session at Earlsfield Library. In the evening I delivered a speech on
Britishness, Citizenship and Identity at a meeting organised by the Fabian
Society (website here) in
partnership with FOSIS, City Circle and Q News. The Chairman of the Home Affairs
Select Committee, John Denham MP; Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the Secretary General
of the Muslim Council of Britain; Shahedah Vawda from City Circle; and Humera
Khan from Q News responded to my speech with all of us answering questions and
contributions form the floor. You can find a copy of my speech by clicking here.
On Tuesday I attended a meeting organised by INQUEST (website here) The meeting highlighted the tragic case of Joseph Scholes who was only 16 years old when he hanged himself in a Young Offenders Institute. Speakers included Lord Ramsbotham, Joseph's mum and Deborah Coles from the organisation Inquest who argued that lessons have not been learnt and that there have been five further child deaths in custody. I have signed EDM 2410 which can be found here. I also met with representatives of Transport for London (TfL) to discuss their "Rail 2025 plan: Increasing Rail Capacity in London and the South East". The Mayors London Plan expects continued growth over the next 20 years with a projected employment growth of 0.9 million and projected population growth of 1 million. As well as opportunities this also presents challenges in the transport infrastructure which we discussed at the meeting. I then met with a representative of the Sri Lanka Islamic forum, who discussed some of the problems the Sri Lankan diaspora of Muslim faith are suffering and work that can be done to alleviate the plight of all people of Sri Lanka whether they be Tamil, Singhalese, Muslim or Christian. In the evening I attended the Fabian Summer reception where Douglas Alexander MP and Harriet Harman MP gave inspiring and good humoured speeches. This provided a good chance to catch up with some of the excellent work the Fabians have been doing in recent months. On Thursday, I attended the official opening ceremony of IslamExpo with London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Lord Sebastian Coe. IslamExpo is Europe's largest Islamic cultural event which aims to introduce the British public to Islam as a global culture and faith scanning continents, races and languages. It also provided an opportunity for positive interaction between Muslims and the different races and cultures of British society. The event was extremely well attended with lots of interesting stalls, thought provoking speakers and entertainment. Seb Coe reminded the audience during his speech that it was exactly a year ago that London won the 2012 bid for the Olympics. Friday was the one year anniversary of the terrible criminal acts of July 7th 2005. I can vividly remember that day as I am sure most Londoners do. The dignity with which bereaved families and victims have conducted themselves over the last year has been quite remarkable. For most of us, the one year anniversary provided an opportunity to give thought to those who suffered and reflect on the massive damage those four men caused. In the late morning I joined the South West Train Operating Company at Earslfield Station to unveil a new disabled help point and new ticket machines that are wheelchair friendly. I have been campaigning for improvements to local trasnsport facilities in Earlsfield Station in particular for a while now and this success was testimony to the continuous support I have had by local residents who have wanted to see disabled passengers treated with the respect and attention that they deserve (click here to see my recent press release on this). Colleen Bowen the Chair of Wandsworth Access Association, Manuel Bolton the Director of Wandsworth Community Transport and Earlsfield resident Barry Fisher joined us for the unveiling. In addition to the help point and ticket machines, Earlsfield station’s stairs have also had a face lift with re-surfaced steps, re-panelled walls and handrails. You can read more about my campaign on the Key Issues page here. I followed this up with a meeting with a local business Future Events (FENS). Future Events produce news diaries and forthcoming news events for the media, govt offices, the Middle East and Asia and even Wandsworth Council. This Company now employs 15 staff and is going from strength to strength. I attended Tooting Islamic Centre for Friday prayers followed by a meeting with Threshold Housing on Garratt Lane. Threshold are one of Tooting’s biggest Registered Social Landlords providing around 800+ affordable houses in the Tooting area. In addition to discussing their current projects and routine matters raised in my casework, we discussed how we could better work together to provide better services to local residents. In the evening I attended the Centenary Day Festival Eucharist at All Saints Church in Tooting. During the sermon the Reverend reminded us that Tooting Bec Lido is also celebrating its 100th year. 1906 must have been an interesting year as it was also the year of the first Labour Party Parliamentarians! On Saturday I was invited back to the Kumon Centre at St Nicholas Church on Church Lane to give out Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates and medals to children who had achieved well in English and Maths. |
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