Murad Qureshi AM, questioned the Leader of Bromley Council about the disappearance of two trees from Hastings Lane in Penge East.  During a visit last month to the local area, Murad was approached by several residents who’d noticed that, following pedestrianisation works by the local council to an access way between Princes Road and Alexandra Road, known as Hardings Lane, only six trees were planted back and not the original eight. 

Murad wrote to the Leader of Bromley Council, Stephen Carr, congratulating him for the works to the local area, but expressed resident’s concerns that two of the trees had failed to return.  In his letter to the leader, Murad said “trees form a vital component of a healthier and greener environment” and asked “whether there are plans to increase the number of trees to the original eight which existed prior to the works” The Leader responded, stating that “eight trees were considered to be inappropriate for the area in question as there were too many of them, especially on London clay which leads to root damage” 

Murad is a London wide Labour Assembly Member and is the Assembly’s Labour Group Environment spokesperson.  He responded to Bromley’s reply stating that “it is vital that someone speaks up and questions decisions like the one made by Bromley, because of the potential impact on the environment.  Although, there are six ornamental trees there now, which will, eventually mature, residents clearly wanted to see all the trees returned.  I’d hope that in the future, councils consult residents more widely and make them aware of their plans and reasons for decisions like this which impact upon the quality of resident’s enjoyment of their local environment”  

Ends.

Notes

Murad Qureshi is a Londonwide Labour Assembly Member and is the Assembly’s Labour Group Environment spokesperson.

Details of the Assembly’s Environment Committee meeting can be found here: 

http://www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/the-london-assembly/committees/environment 

Further info please  Nikki Salih on 020 7983 4400 or Alison Marcroft at 020 7983 4363

Please see below the response to my written MQT;

Cricket investigation

Question No: 2743 / 2010

Murad Qureshi

How did the MET decide to investigate the cricket corruption cases surrounding the Pakistani cricket side when the cricket authorities themselves in the form of the ICC are doing there own investigations?

Answer from the Mayor

On 30^th August, officers from the Metropolitan Police met with representatives from the News of the World newspaper who provided evidence of a conspiracy to dishonestly influence a cricket Test match between England and Pakistan.

An assessment by senior officers and a senior crown prosecutor concluded that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that serious criminal activity had taken place. It was then deemed appropriate (and in the public interest) to mount an investigation.

 In order to preserve evidence, it was necessary to take immediate action. The investigation is being conducted by officers from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command, with close liaison with the CPS and the relevant cricket authorities.

I keenly registered with the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme and have on previous blogs made known my first impressions of the scheme. Please see attached link of previous blog. But what’s beginning to cloud my experience of this scheme, is how l’ve been hit with additional costs of up to £87 since the 30th of July when l first registered.  The cost of registration itself was £48 for the whole year including the key, so to then be expected to fork out nearly double that, is a complete disincentive for the scheme.

It’s inconceivable that l could have incurred my first financial hit of £52, within just two weeks of the scheme launch, as all my trips have been less then half an hour long and quite frankly, I just haven’t done enough mileage. I have of course been back to TFL, and was told that l would get a refund, but these have yet to materialise on my credit card.  Also, just to add insult to injury, whilst chasing up my refund, l was swiftly informed that l’d be charged a further £35! Something is clearly amiss with the administration of the charges for the bike hire scheme.

So although it’s very handy having the bike option in my local area, it’s turning out to be a very expensive way of travelling around the neighbourhood, something most Londoners can do without in the present climate.

As ballots hit our door matts, l’m backing Ken as our Mayoral candidate for 2012.

My support for Ken was made clear early on in this campaign.  Not only are “Ken” and “London” synonymous, his vision for London is a London wide one, and not just targeted at either inner London or the suburbs.  Also, support for Ken is broadly based across all of London Labour politics.  He is supported by all the various party leadership candidate backers in London and by many Councillors and Trade Unionists of varying shades of red.

This vision and breadth of support offered by Ken will formulate the type of coalition that will, not only give us the unity of purpose to win back the Mayoralty in 2012, but also, a major platform on which Labour can build its return to national government.

During this last bank holiday weekend, l didn’t bother going to Lords to watch the England Vs Pakistan test match despite having member tickets. The allegations, which came so soon after the collapse of the Pakistani first innings, made me wonder what an earth is happening to their cricket!  The depth of damage to this wonderful game cannot be understated, particularly because of the speed in which it has become major global news.  I’d heard the newspaper vendor next door to Grace Gates had such a run on the News of the World, (not the normal read of MCC members), that he had to call for further supplies.

It’s often been said Pakistan’s inherent love and passion for the game has often kept it together, even at the most testing and toughest times, reflecting its national importance.  However, coming so soon after the recent tragic floods and its ongoing battles against terrorism, this is yet another blow to Pakistani pride which will no doubt impact even further upon the nation’s psyche.   If the allegations are founded, well frankly, this nation deserved better from its national team, so I’m not surprised by the very heart felt and emotional responses of disappointment which we’ve heard from Pakistanis, both in the UK and in Pakistan towards the team.   In my view, these allegations cut deeper than the, not so long ago, Alex Higgins story of match fixing, for the simple reason that it’s not just about one individual, its about a team and an entire nation’s pride which has been trampled on.

I’ve got a ticket for the one day international at Lords between England & Pakistan on the 20th of September, but unless we see dramatic changes, and swift and decisive action by the Pakistani Cricket Board, I’m unlikely to go.  I feel great pity to have to say this, because the last time l watched them play at Lords, they’d beaten Sri Lanka in the Twenty20 World Cup final last year, illustrating well the best of Pakistani cricket.

I, probably like many millions of other fans, will never be able to watch a no-ball in international cricket again, without wondering whether it was deliberate or not.  How very disappointing.  But whilst such events cost reputations, it does not cost lives in the same way that a flood does, so let’s get our perspective right on these things.

“The dismantling of the 1952 Cranford Agreement limiting the use of the runways at Heathrow has led to a back door approach by Heathrow to dramatically increase flights from the airport” claims Murad Qureshi, London Assembly Member and Labour Group lead on the Environment, after seeing recent reports presented at a meeting of the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC)*.

The works necessary to extend the use of the airport and take advantage of the new arrangements could pave the way for extensive mixed mode use of the airport’s two runways and a dramatic increase of flights in and out of the airport. Heathrow’s capacity was capped at 480,000 movements a year under the terms for Terminal 5 planning permission. However, current moves could mean that this cap is lifted and there could be up to 515,000 movements a year in the future.

Although any new works will require planning permission and consultation before going ahead locals fear that this is an underhand means of increasing he use of the airport and just a foot in the door for wider and more damaging changes.

Similar concerns were also expressed by London Assembly members in a motion they passed in June this year.

Ends.

Notes for Editors

Murad Qureshi is the Labour Group environment spokesperson and deputy chair of the London Assembly Environment Committee.

He is the London Assembly’s representative on the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee

The Cranford verbal agreement introduced runway alternation in the 1950’s it stipulated that the northern runway should not be used for take offs in an easterly direction over Cranford unless unavoidable.

In 2009 the Secretary of State announced that the Cranford Agreement would end and introduce runway alternation on the easterlies with the view to redistributing noise around the airport more fairly.

The airport has to be reconfigured to accommodate the new landing patterns. NATS and the CAA will need to identify current schedules can be maintained while the works are undertaken.

Once this work has been done and a schedule of works determined local residents will be informed and consultation begun – works envisaged to take well in excess of 12 months.

Quite separately, from 13^th September 2010 essential maintenance work will start which will mean that day time alteration will be suspended – night time alternation will not be affected – work anticipated to last 6 weeks.

*Text of motion agreed by the Assembly at its Plenary meeting on 16 June 2010 can be found here

http://legacy.london.gov.uk/assembly/assemmtgs/2010/plenaryjun16/minutes/minutes.pdf