Live Q & A with Tooting MP, Sadiq Khan -

[LocalEditorWandsworth]

We are delighted that Tooting MP and Shadow Minister for London, Sadiq Khan, will be joining us live on Monday 6th October between 10.30 and 11.30 am to answer your questions.

Having lived in Tooting all his life and served as a local councillor for 12 years, Sadiq was elected MP for Tooting in 2005. His constituency encompasses not just Tooting but also Balham, Earlsfield, Furzedown and Wandsworth Common.

Sadiq is also the Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Minister for London.

He will be happy to answer your questions on all things Tooting related and has previously campaigned on many local issues including schools, one o'clock clubs, stations, hospitals, traffic, transport and the protection of local pubs.

Join us on Monday morning, or if you can't make it along post your questions here in advance.

My question is about our local tube stations. Given that we are in 'nappy valley' with such a high proportion of families with young children any chance of getting some form of ramp installed to make it easier to get buggies down into the tube? Wouldn't be expensive or difficult to do - just to cover the initial bit before you reach the escalators.

What recent efforts are being made to ensure the opening of Springfield Park for local residents? Given up? :)

The current mis-government is selling rare and needed green land without serious opposition from the local short sighted wandsworth council tax franchise. They can block this activity if they wish to be taken seriously.

This park has to be fought for. Are you up for it? To not do so would be criminal.

www.tootingonline.com/forum/tooting-sports-leisure/394-new-32-acre-public-park-planned-springfield-hospital-site.html

A schools question please. You'll be aware there was a shortage of places in earlsfield this year resulting in the last minute addition of a class at smallwood. Are there any plans to avoid the same thing happening next year? I know the new Floreat school is due to open but that's quite a long way away.

Despite council posters warning of fines there is still a lot of flytipping around our residential roads.

Having recently run the marathon, I wondered if you'd heard about how Wandsworth Council have been trying to charge ParkRun to use our local parks and commons. Parkrun is a not for profit organisation designed to get people more involved in sport in a fun and safe environment. Events are free to participants and open to all. They also organise junior events for children which must be a good thing given how much we hear baout child obesity at the moment. By insisting on a charge the council is denying us access to these events. There is a petition here but I wondered whether it was something you might be able to get the council to see sense about?

In a similar vein there is a rumour that the Council intends to close Tooting Bec Athletics track (or lease it out like it has done with tennis courts etc... presumably leading to increased charges). What are your views on this?

I get the train from Earlsfield every morning and is always very overcrowded. Can anything be done to improve it? The station is much better now but maybe we could have extra carriages or more trains?

Morning Sadiq. There's been quite a lot of speculation you might run for mayor of London. Is that something you are considering and if so would it mean resigning your Tootting seat?

I find the roads leading up to Tooting Broadway terrifying - both as a pedestrian and a driver. People cross the road everywhere and often in a rush to try and catch the many buses passing through. We've had a couple of very horrible accidents as a result in the last year. Can something be done to make them safer? I'm not sure what - more barriers and proper crossings perhaps.

Good morning everyone. Real pleasure to join you for this Q&A this morning, looking forward to answering all your questions! Any queries after this, just drop me an email to [email protected] or maybe I might be invited back for another session?
Sadiq

Good morning. A question I think you are already familiar with - betting shops! I gather the application for our 23rd betting shop was okayed by government despite being vetoed by the council. Does that mean there is nothing we/local politicians can really do to control what we have on our high streets?

Morning everyone and thanks for all the advance questions.

A big welcome to Sadiq. Thanks for taking the time to be with us this morning.

tiredofwetsheets Thanks for your question. As a parent myself I know how difficult it is travelling with buggies on the tube (although now in secondary school. my girls have been out of their buggies for quite a while!) And improving accessibility on public transport, for parents with buggies, people with a disability and older people, has always been a priority for me since becoming MP in 2005 (when my girls were just 4 and 5 years old!).

I successfully led the campaign for lifts, and other improvements, at Balham and Earlsfield Stations, which I am delighted are now in place. I also secured funding for step free access for Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway Stations under then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone (as the Mayor is responsible for tubes and buses). However when Boris Johnson was elected in 2008 the funding was scrapped.

I agree that much more needs to be done to make public transport more accessible and I will continue to urge the Mayor to make this a priority. This does not need to cost a lot of money, and helps parents, as well as older people. Let me raise your concerns with TfL again and if you drop me an email to [email protected] I can keep you updated on this.

EdJason As you probably know already, I worked closely with local residents to challenge plans to overdevelop the Springfield site. Whilst I always supported the regeneration of the hospital and the improvement of its services, what local residents opposed was the scale of the development proposed on the site. I worked with councillors of both main parties to get the best deal for local residents.

Unfortunately in 2012, the Secretary of State Eric Pickles gave the over-development the go ahead and since then my priority has been to make sure that local people are consulted throughout the planning process. A big part of this has involved the Trust’s plans for parkland on the site. I have attended a number of public meetings on the redevelopment of the Parkland and encouraged local people to have their say in the Trust’s survey at the end of 2012.

The next step is for the council to hold a public consultation on the plans for Springfield Parkland, which has been delayed a number of times. I strongly support the protection of this Parkland, and I want it utilised for everyone in the community to use. Those that run the hospital are keen to work with the local community and I have been impressed by CEO David Bradley’s efforts to bring the hospital into the 21st century whilst keeping local residents on side. If you drop me an email to [email protected] I can keep you updated.

Just a general question about how the local political scene works really as I have specific issues locally but am not sure who the right person to approach is. The council seem to be in charge of most local facilities and policy. From your replies so far it seems the government can overrule them so is that the local MP's role - communicating our concerns upwards to government?

Thanks. I hadn't realised there had been a plan that had been scrapped. Even just some ramps would help. I will send you an e-mail with my details.

julieh1 Wandsworth is a fantastic place to live, but it is the selfish acts of a handful of individuals that are littering our streets. We need to encourage these individuals to behave responsibility and respect their neighbours and community. I’ve seen some really good work done on this in our local schools; teaching future generations that this unacceptable.

Keeping our streets clean is the responsibility of Wandsworth Council, but after cutting their street cleaning budget by almost 20% last year, I’m worried that keeping our streets clean isn’t a council priority – prosecutions are a real deterrent but we also need proactive action, and keeping our streets clean in the first place. Evidence tells us that if an area is clean, people are less likely to fly-tip.

We need the council to step up to their responsibilities and send a clear message to the perpetrators of fly-tipping that it will not be tolerated.

I continue to call for more proactive action on keeping our streets clean, particularly on rubbish collection days. We also need action on catching the perpetrators of fly-tipping, and an increase in the number of street cleans for the worst affected streets.

If you see someone flytipping, please report it so the council can clean it up.

It would be helpful if you can give the following details of the incident:
• Date
• Time
• Location
• A description of what was dumped
• Vehicle descriptions
• Car registration numbers
• Description of the persons involved

It will also help if we have a picture of the dumped rubbish. You can:
• report flytipping online: choose the Street cleaning service
• email us: [email protected]
• telephone 020 8871 8249, or 020 8871 8546, or 020 8871 6396

mumbleema I couldn’t agree more! We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many green spaces and for many of us, the best way to enjoy them is by running on a Saturday morning. When I was training for the London Marathon earlier this year, I was spotted by many of you running laps on Tooting Common! Thanks for all the local residents who shared their running tips, showed their support on the day and donated to my charity, helping to raise a whopping £20k!

ParkRun would not cause the council to incur any extra cost, it brings people together and has obvious health benefits. For me it’s a no brainer and I don’t know why the council are dragging their feet. I’ve added my name to the petition and I am encouraging others to do the same. I’ve also written to the council to ask them to listen to local people and bring ParkRun to Wandsworth. You can read more about this here www.sadiqkhan.org.uk/sadiq_backs_parkrun_campaign. Hopefully, together, we will get the council to see sense!

Thanks for the reply. I know from friends who live in Streatham that they have a free app you can put on your phone to report litter and flytipping which I think is a great idea. The easier it is to report the better as I find the current system time consuming and often forget to e-mail when I get home.

julieh1 The athletics track is used by athletes of all ages, including the local schools (I even used the track for my marathon training!) and its closure would be a terrible loss for the community. In light of recent rumours I have demanded answers from Council Leader Ravi Govindia. We deserve to have open and honest answers from the council. Are there plans to close Tooting Bec Athletics Track? Are the council willing to give reassurances that there will be no closures in the near future? Drop me an email to [email protected] and I can let you know when I receive the council’s response!

I think the athletics track rumours actually started over on one of our other threads (under the title Southfields library), so if you let us know what you find out Sadiq we will add the information to it.

localparent As I have mentioned to tiredofwetsheets, improving facilities in our stations is a big priority to me and I was delighted after years of campaigning and lobbying, we secured an £8million refurbishment of the station back in 2007 (www.sadiqkhan.org.uk/sadiq_formally_opens_fantastic_new_facilities_at_earlsfield_station_after_8_year_campaign).

As someone who grew up on the Henry Prince Estate, just down the road from the station, this is one of my proudest achievements as the local MP.

I know that overcrowding on the station platforms, particularly on the morning commute, has become a real problem at Earlsfield and since first being elected in 2005 I have been in regular contact with the company responsible for Earlsfield Station (South West Trains) to address overcrowding at the station. At one of my regular meetings with Earlsfield Station Manager, we caught up on the plans to address the issue. More here www.sadiqkhan.org.uk/earlsfield_station_update.

I am pleased to report that the lengthening of platforms 2 and 3 is now complete. This means that Earlsfield Station began to receive 10 car trains in July rather than 8 cars. (Note this currently only affects a number of services). Whilst this will start to make a real difference to overcrowding at the station and vastly improve residents’ commutes, we need to see many more long-car services at peak times. Rail chiefs tell me this won’t be until 2017, as it is part of a much bigger project, as platforms need to be extended at Waterloo Station too.

In the meantime, I have received confirmation from South West Trains that they are now operating two extra services from Earlsfield to Waterloo in the mornings (07:29 and 09:40) and have also introduced a turn up and go policy to prevent delays and are in the process of reviewing staffing levels on the platform.

With the local population continuing to grow, (as is the rest of London’s), we do need a proper transport policy to address this.

julieh1 Thanks for this. I'm meeting with the Leader of Lambeth Council, Cllr Lib Peck, shortly and shall ask her about this, and see if we can persuade our council to follow suit.

Hi Sadiq

As someone who has lived in SW London for 20 years or so, we've seen massive gentrification of Balham, Battersea, Tooting Bec and now Tooting in that time-frame.

We welcome the fact that Tooting is now 'up and coming' with so many new businesses opening and thriving (particularly restaurants and gastro-pubs), but less pleased with the hefty (and escalating) price-tags attached to buying property here. Tooting has traditionally been an 'affordable' area to live and now hard-working locals including a sizeable public sector worker population (thinking particularly of those working for the two NHS Trusts locally) are being forced out of the area.

What are you doing to help those who don't work in the City (and are being effectively priced out of the local property market) to stay in their area? They do contribute significantly to the local economy!

Thanks.

Apparently it is called cleanup streatham but I am not entirely certain that it's actually run by Lambeth council.