Ken Livingstone brings London mayoral campaign to Woolwich
April 1, 2012 by Rob Powell
Ken Livingstone took his election battle bus to Woolwich on Friday morning.
With megaphone in hand, Labour’s London mayoral hopeful hopped on to a soap box in General Gordon Square and gave a five minute speech to a crowd of about twenty-five spectators.
The former mayor, who has contested every mayoral election since the post’s inception, was joined by local London Assembly candidate Len Duvall and Labour list candidate Val Shawcross, who will be Ken’s deputy if he wins on May 3rd.
After his speech, which was met by polite applause, many audience members reached for their phones and asked Livingstone to pose for photos with them.
Speaking to Greenwich.co.uk before moving on to Lewisham, Mr Livingstone said that the new cable car was a “disaster”, he wanted to rename the ArcelorMittal Orbit as “the Johnson” and that he wouldn’t be able to extend the bike hire scheme to Greenwich in its current form.
He also said that Boris Johnson’s proposed new river crossing at Silvertown was “complete pie… underground.”
Emirates Airline Cable Car
Ken Livingstone told this website that the the under-construction cable car at North Greenwich was a “disaster” and despite work being well under way, he was “not certain it will ever open.”
It was “the most expensive cable car in human history,” he added. But if he wins, will Livingstone invite Boris Johnson back for the opening? “I’m not going to be as petty as he was. He didn’t invite me down here when he opened the Woolwich extension [to the DLR].”
Extending the Bike Hire Scheme to Greenwich
Ken ruled out extending the bire hire scheme to the Royal Borough of Greenwich in its current form.
“Not while it’s this expensive… if you rolled out the bike scheme across the whole of London it’s a billion pounds. They’ve either got to cut their price or we’ve got to look at something like the Barcelona scheme which is much cheaper.”
Extending the DLR to Eltham
Greenwich Council recently undertook a feasibility study into extending the DLR to Eltham. Does Ken back the scheme?
“DLR extensions are relatively cheap” compared to building an underground extension, he said and “we can clearly extend it.”
Boris’ mistakes
“Getting rid of 86 front-line police officers” in the borough had been the current mayor’s biggest mistake, said Livingstone, but there “was such a rich field to choose from,” he added.
River Crossings
Speaking to a resident, Ken said that the government had given Boris Johnson no money for a new river crossing so the proposed Blackwall relief tunnel was “complete pie in the… well, pie underground.”
More information on the London elections can be found at London Elects.
[...] GuardianLondon mayor election: Ken Livingstone in lower fares pledgeBBC NewsEvening Standard -Greenwich.co.uk -Sky Newsall 63 news articles » Filed under: Blog Leave a comment Comments [...]
[...] the attraction will ever recoup its cost is debatable; Ken Livingstone this weekend called it the most expensive cable car in history, and little more than half of its £60m cost is coming from Emirates’ bulging wallet — [...]
Kens ‘helping ordinary people’ tale is wearing a bit thin tbh… as he makes out that anyone who earns more than £30k and doesn’t work in the public sector should feel guilty for being so greedy… whilst he travels business class – the champagne socialist. The guy has zero charisma and his policies are nonsense… just my honest opinion.
[...] The elegant towers of the Thames cable car are now linked by a cable spanning the river. Neil Clasper took this great photo at the weekend which shows the progress that’s been made by contractors on the project. But despite that progress, mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone told this website on Friday that he isn’t certain the cable car will ever open. Read, and listen to, his comments in full here. [...]
[...] the attraction will ever recoup its cost is debatable; Ken Livingstone this weekend called it the most expensive cable car in history, and little more than half of its £60m cost is coming from Emirates’ bulging wallet — [...]
[...] the attraction will ever recoup its cost is debatable; Ken Livingstone this weekend called it the most expensive cable car in history, and little more than half of its £60m cost is coming from Emirates’ bulging wallet — the rest [...]
[...] been touring Woolwich, taking the opportunity to tell the good people that they won’t be getting cycle hire anytime [...]
[...] Local campaigning: Made speech in Woolwich and answered questions from press [...]
[...] instead,” one political rival said. “Ken Livingstone’s had to make more than a token appearance in Woolwich this time [...]