Letter to the Press: Traders are crucial
Dear Editor
Mr Goorwich in his letter (Times 31st May) challenges me to meet with residents and traders to hear their concerns.
It has always been my style as a politician to call on residents when there aren’t elections: for 13 years as an MP I spent nearly every weekend doing so. I will be doing the same as Barnet and Camden’s Assembly member, but with an electorate 5 times as large as that of an MP (and it used to take me 4 years to call on everyone, at the rate of 1,000 a month on average as Hendon’s MP) it is a tall order to get round a population of 450,000 voters (and tens of thousands of other residents) in the 2 boroughs and 5 parliamentary constituencies, covering the same ground as almost 130 local ward councillors!
As for meeting traders, during the election I called on quite a few traders, but it was not possible to visit everyone, given the scale involved. Since then, I have already met a number of Barnet traders and their representatives too: in fact I met with a number of traders 2 weeks after the election, including Gail Laser of the High Barnet Traders Association and Helen Michael of North Finchley Traders Association.
In light of our discussions, I raised the issue of parking with the Leader of the Council, proposing a charge free period of 30 minutes for shoppers. Almost immediately the council announced its new parking proposals, which to my mind are too little to late, and are a con: for example, 50p for 15 minutes is in fact 70p, when the pay by phone administrative charge is included. Their proposals do not answer the key criticisms of the Council’s parking policies and a root and branch review is required to get some common sense back into the system.
I also raised the issue of parking in town centres at the very first Mayor’s Question Time and as newly elected chair of the Assembly’s Economic Committee I anticipate we will be holding an inquiry into the problems of town centres immediately after the summer break.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Dismore
Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden
