Greens back 20 mph limit for Church Lane -- and all residential streets

Greens in East Finchley are urging the introduction of a 20 mph speed limit on East Finchley's Church Lane and all the other residential and shopping streets in Barnet borough.

Barnet Council has fobbed off a call by East Finchley Village Residents Association for a 20 mph limit on Church Lane by saying some people will ignore the limit whatever it is set at.

There will always be tearaways who drive much too fast but the Greens point out there is a much larger proportion of people who drive at or no more than slightly above the prevailing speed limit – you can witness this on almost any road on any day.

"These more or less law abiding people will change their behaviour if a speed limit changes and it would therefore be very worthwhile to introduce a speed limit on part of Church Lane, East Finchley," said Noel Lynch, chair of Barnet Green Party and an East Finchley candidate for the council elections in May.

"Given that the average speed along the stretch is 29.5 mph while the limit is 30 mph, there is a strong chance that a 20 mph limit would bring the average speed down by a fair amount, making the road much safer and making life more pleasant for schoolchildren and other pedestrians using Church Lane," he said.

The danger and nuisance caused by speeding motorists do not just affect Church Lane of course but also blight many other roads in Barnet borough and the Green Party would like to see a 20 mph limit adopted for all Barnet residential and shopping streets, with appropriate enforcement measures.

Islington Council, at the initiative of a Green councillor, has just become the first borough in the country to adopt a 20 mph limit for all except principal roads and "it will be very interesting to see what the effect is not just in terms of road accident figures but in the percentage of children walking or cycling to school," Noel said.

Greens urge councils to act to cut bus fares

The Green Party of England and Wales has urged local authorities across the UK to take advantage of new legislation and cut bus fares.

An amendment to the Local Transport Act of 2008 which came into force this month enables local governments to create Quality Contract Schemes. Such provisions allow authorities the power to instate London style quality control over service provision including fares, timings and routes.

Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party, said: "Greens welcome amendments to the law that allow for Quality Contract Schemes. We must make sure buses are a financially viable alternative to cars. While such provisions give local authorities a fantastic opportunity to move ahead with plans to reduce fares, the current government has done little to make buses an attractive option.

"In the past decade the cost of motoring has fallen by 13% in real terms whilst bus fares have risen by 17%, and funding for buses is poor compared to many of our European neighbours. In addition 53% of people would take the bus to work if the service was better [1]. Cutting bus fares is a sure fire way of easing congestion and pollution on city roads. The QCS's present a real chance to make this happen."

However the optimism over QCS's may be short lived. Exponents of the scheme have warned that local authorities must act quickly after reports surfaced that a Conservative government would repeal the part of the act that allows for QCS's in favour of a more competitive bus industry.

A spokesperson for the CBT (Campaign for Better Transport) said:

"Shadow Transport minister Stephen Hammond wants to scrap Quality Contracts. We advise Quality Contracts should thus be quickly approved, and that the Department should play an active role in encouraging and supporting local transport authorities who want to use these new powers. Currently bus services in the UK receive some of the lowest funding in Europe. A better funded and attractive bus system would do a good deal to lower carbon emissions and create more pleasant city environments."

Your Green candidates for East Finchley

The Green Party has selected Noel Lynch, Andrew Newby and Steve Norman as its candidates for
East Finchley ward in the Barnet Council elections to take place in May. East Finchley is Barnet
Green Party's top target ward and Noel, Andrew and Steve are aiming to win. Please vote for them!
Noel Lynch – long-time East Finchley campaigner

Green Party stalwart and former London Assembly member Noel
Lynch has campaigned in East Finchley for many years.
He is currently pushing for improvements to East Finchley's bus
links, in particular for a new route to the Royal Free Hospital.
Noel said: “London Greens are proposing the cancellation of
Boris Johnson's recent approval of a big rise in bus fares. Boris
doesn't care about ordinary people or the environment.”
Noel has fought to protect East Finchley and other
neighbourhood communities and has been a long-time champion
of small business.

Financial journalist Andrew Newby has had his home in the
borough for 23 years.
He is furious at Barnet Council's weak social and environmental
policies and its refusal to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act.
“Some Green policies are unglamorous, such as better insulation
of private and social housing, but they can save money and give
everyone a better quality of life,” he says.
In Totteridge ward in 2006 he doubled the Green Party vote,
beating Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. In East Finchley
he aims to beat all other parties and win a council seat.

East Finchley-born Steve Norman is a professional gardener but it
wasn't just the environment which led him to join the Greens.
“I joined because of its policies on animal rights and civil
liberties issues. I am concerned about corporate interests being
given priority over human rights,” he said.
Steve himself coordinated a campaign against greyhound racing,
focussed on Walthamstow track, which has now closed down.
Steve first stood in East Finchley ward in 2005, campaigning
alongside Noel. In that year Noel and Andrew were the top polling
Barnet Greens, with Steve not far behind.

Greens say extend 603 route

Transport for London has rejected a petition signed by more than 400 people for a new bus route
from North Finchley via East Finchley to the Royal Free Hospital, on the grounds that the route
would require a subsidy estimated at more than 800,000 pounds a year.
Barnet Green Party, which raised the petition, is challenging the figures and has put forward a
modified proposal to run more journeys on the existing 603 route between Muswell Hill and Swiss
Cottage and to modify the route slightly to take it past the Royal Free.
Green members in the London Assembly will formally ask Mayor Boris Johnson to tell TfL to work
out the cost of an hourly service until midnight on the amended 603 route.
The daytime journeys would help people to reach the Royal Free and the Greens believe the
evening buses would be popular with people wanting to attend social events along the route, which
goes via East Finchley, Highgate village, Kenwood, The Spaniards Inn and Hampstead village.
The 603 currently operates only four journeys each way from Monday to Friday, two in the morning
and two in the afternoon, mainly to serve North London schools.
In response to the petition, David Brown, TfL's managing director for surface transport, told Green
Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones that the North Finchley to Royal Free route would not
attract enough passengers to justify the estimated subsidy.
But Andrew Newby, of the Green Party's East Finchley group, said: “TfL bases its rejection of a
new route on its estimate that there would be around 700 passenger trips per day if a 20 minute
service was provided. People in East Finchley know that far more people than that would use it,
reducing the amount of subsidy the route would require.”
“More and more Finchley people are being referred to the Royal Free Hospital. At the moment
people have to take two buses and it usually takes them over an hour to get from East Finchley to
the Royal Free.”
Brown also rejected other ideas for improving bus routes between East and North Finchley, linked
only by the 263. Extending route 17 to North Finchley would cost around 1.2 million pounds
according to TfL's calculations, while diverting some 134 buses via East Finchley would mean there
was insufficent capacity on the existing route at peak times, London's transport authority said.
“If we can get a service launched between East Finchley and the Royal Free we are certain it will be
successful. Once that is established we can go back to TfL and make the case for better links to
North Finchley and beyond,” Newby said.
“Many people in that area have said they would use a bus route to Hampstead and the Royal Free,”
he said.
A full copy of Brown's reply to Jones is on www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk.

Greens tell Boris: 'don't raise bus fares'

The Green Party's Darren Johnson will be aiming to freeze bus fares when he seeks to amend Mayor Boris Johnson's draft budget.

The £75m that the Mayor is raising from the 12 percent bus fare increase would instead be raised mostly from motorists, with the reinstatement of the £25 emissions charge on gas guzzlers and retention of the western extension of the congestion charge.
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Responding to the London Mayor's consultation budget proposals for 2010/11, Darren Johnson said: "I will seek a reverse of this year's fare rises on the buses by urging the Assembly to support an amendment to the mayor's budget.

The Mayor's budget proposals will mean less money raised from car drivers, whilst public transport users are paying more. I want to see the Mayor protecting the poorer Londoners by freezing bus fares and making those who pollute more, pay more.

The Mayor claims that he has to increase bus fares whilst cutting bus services in order to fill a financial black hole, but a large part the deficit is created by for vanity projects such as scrapping bendy buses and dropping charges designed to discourage polluting cars."