London Mayoral and London Assembly elections 2016
Transport for All
The Mayoral and London Assembly elections are a big deal. On 6th May the new Mayor of London will move into City Hall...
The Mayoral and London Assembly elections are a big deal. On 6th May the new Mayor of London will move into City Hall and take the helm of Transport for London, the capital’s transport authority. In practise that means that he or she will oversee how our buses, tubes, trains, trams, Dial-a-Ride, taxicard, river boats, and streets are run and managed. With Boris Johnson’s departure after 8 years, London will be having a brand new Mayor and TfA (along with our partner organisations Inclusion London and Alliance for Inclusion Education) will be meeting the candidates from all the main political parties before the election. We very much hope to impress on them the importance of funding further improvements to accessibility across the transport network. From more step free Tube stations to making Taxicard work better – we hope that the new Mayor will put the political will and resources behind making transport access a priority of their tenure.
The London Assembly also has an important part to play in keeping a watchful eye on the Mayor and Transport for London. In recent years the Assembly’s Transport Committee has taken this role very seriously and done some excellent investigations into transport access for disabled and older Londoners.
We look forward to meeting with new Assembly Members and taking them on a trip with TfA members. (Get in touch, if you would like to take them on a journey)
We will also be talking to the Mayoral candidates about increasing the dialogue that the Mayor has with London’ disabled and older people’s groups and organisations. It’s been many years since City Hall welcomed our groups to speak about the concerns of our members.
Unfortunately savage cuts on both a national and local level are taking their toll. Austerity has hit many disabled and older Londoners hard and we need a Mayor who will stand up for us and provide opportunities like apprenticeships for young disabled people.
Together with our partners we hope to launch our collective manifesto of demands on the new Mayor very soon; and we look forward to sharing this with you.
