Having been born and raised in West Central London and living near the Edgware Road, I have always been concerned about the high levels of air pollution rates in my local area. Each year, since 2000, Edgware Road and Baker Street have featured on the list of most polluted London sites.

As a concerned resident and Deputy Chair of the Assembly Environment Committee, I more than welcome the introduction of London’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ). This scheme will see the most polluting vehicles being charged for driving in London.  From February onwards, diesel-engined lorries of over 1200 tonnes in weight that fail to meet the required emissions standard will be charged to enter Greater London. From summer 2008, buses, coaches and all lorries over 3,5 tonnes will be included in the scheme. Large vans and minibuses will be covered by the LEZ from October 2010. Air pollution has many negative effects on people’s health. In London, which has the worst air pollution in the UK, an estimated 1000 premature deaths and a similar number of hospital emissions occurred as a result in 2005. The fact that 75% of Londoners support the introduction of the LEZ shows that most Londoners recognise something needs to be done to improve the air quality in our city.

For further information about the LEZ scheme you can consult the information leaflet on:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/lez/default.aspx

With last year’s successful Twenty20 World Cup tournament, twenty over cricket is rapidly increasing in popularity. I believe this version of cricket lends itself well to being a demonstration sport in the London 2012 Olympics. Back in 1900 cricket was introduced as an Olympic sport at the Paris games but subsequently dropped for whatever reason.  It would be great if the return of the Olympic cricket competition would be staged at the London Olympics, at the home of the sport.

With London being the home to both Lords and the Oval, the contest can be held with no additional construction costs to the ODA, LOCOG and both national and local government.

Staging cricket at the 2012 Olympics would, no doubt, attract large numbers of South Asian TV viewers who normally are unlikely to watch the Olympics but tune in to see the cricket. Indeed with over 120 cricket-playing nations are recognised by ICC, it will have a truly global appeal.

If you agree with Murad, and feel this is a good idea, please register your support on the Web Survey.

The London Assembly has called on Tube Lines to lift cleaners out of poverty. A motion tabled by Murad demanded that cleaners working on the tube network all be paid a minimum of £7.20 an hour; the London Living Wage.

Whilst the administrator of tube infrastructure company Metronet is committed to paying at least the London Living Wage, cleaners contracted to work for the other infrastructure company Tube Lines are paid just £5.52 an hour, well below the minimum needed to live free of poverty in London.

The London Assembly supported Murad’s motion urging Tube Lines to follow Metronet’s example and raise pay rates for cleaners.

Murad urged Tube Lines to end poverty pay for their staff:

"Cleaners on the tube provide a valuable service and deserve a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. Every Londoner knows our city is an expensive place to live and, like everyone else, cleaners cannot be expected to meet the costs of living here on rates of pay barely above the national minimum wage. How can Tube Lines justify a cleaner on the Jubilee line being paid nearly two pounds an hour less than a cleaner working on the District Line."

The full text of the motion reads as follows:

"This Assembly supports the promotion of the London Living Wage, which on account primarily of housing costs represents a viable minimum wage level in London some £2 greater than the national minimum wage. We note that it is to be extended to cleaners working directly or through contractors for the Metronet Consortium and urge Tube Lines to follow a similar course."

Murad and John Biggs, another Labour Assembly Member on the Assembly’s Transport Committee, have spoken out against the Committee’s report into crime on buses. Murad and John say that while they welcome the committee’s work, they have “serious doubts” about the motives of its Chair.

Murad said: “While this is a valuable piece of work we strongly dispute many of its findings. Both John and myself saw the same evidence as the Chair and we feel that in some places it has been wishfully interpreted to suit his existing prejudices.”

John and Murad produced their own minority report rubbishing many of the committee’s findings:

* The latest figures show that crime rates on buses have fallen to below 2004/05 levels
* There is no evidence of a correlation between recorded crime levels and the introduction of free travel for under-16s
* Anecdotal references to “rowdy behaviour” on certain bus routes are not linked to recorded criminal behaviour
* The table of “least safe routes” is meaningless without comparing the lengths of the routes or the number of passengers they carry

Murad continued: “While one crime on our bus network is one too many, we feel there is little to be gained from scaremongering and reinforcing urban myths. The latest figures from TfL, which the committee chose not to cite, show that in the first half of 2007/08 there were just 15 crimes per million passenger journeys.

“Free travel has been a huge benefit to London’s youngsters, especially for those from low income families. Some members of the committee are on record as opposing this policy and it should be no great surprise that they tried to use this scrutiny report to back up their opposition. The investigation found no evidence to fit their agenda.

“We would like to reiterate our support for free bus travel for young people and strongly welcome the introduction of photocards which will reinforce that with the right to free travel comes responsibilities.”

You can read the report here, our minority report is listed as appendix 1.

Murad is urging all Londoners to take part in the Mayor’s light bulb amnesty this weekend and make a step to start saving the planet.

DIY store B&Q and British Gas have joined with the Mayor to offer all Londoners free low energy light bulbs in exchange for older bulbs. Londoners can take a traditional light bulb from their home to any of the 28 B&Q stores across London and receive a free energy efficient light bulb from British Gas.

It is estimated that if all London households switched to energy efficient bulbs the capital’s carbon emissions would be reduced by half a million tons and Londoners could save up to £139million in energy bills.

Murad said “˜I hope this will encourage more people to take that important first step in making changes to their lifestyle which will benefit the environment. Using low energy bulbs is a really simple way for everyone to save energy and cut down emissions ““ and it saves people money too not only on energy bills but also on light bulbs as the low energy versions last much longer than conventional bulbs.’

The free bulbs are available from 11^th January to 13^th January and the offer is limited to two free bulbs per household.

Today, Murad urged Londoners to recycle their Christmas Trees and other rubbish leftovers from the festive season. He launched the Recycle for London campaign by feeding the 22m Christmas Tree at Trafalgar Square to a chipping machine.

 An estimated 976,000 Christmas trees and 124m cards will be thrown away in London instead of being recycled. To make recycling easy 26 boroughs are offering to collect the trees and other festive rubbish from home, while the remaining 17 councils have set up drop-off points for Christmas trees.

Murad said: “While London’s recycling rate is improving, we could all be doing much more to help increase it even further.

“I hope today’s recycling of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree will encourage Londoners to make a greener start to 2008. The post-festive season is a great time to begin new habits.”

London residents and businesses can find out more about recycling services in their area by visiting the Recycle for London website, call 0845 331 3131 or text RECYCLE and a full postcode to 63131.

The London Assembly’s Environment Committee today published its report Bag to Basics: Why & How Free Shopping Bags Should be Removed from London’s Shops. Launching the report Deputy Chair of the Committee, Murad Qureshi, said London should be “leading the debate”.

Murad with John Gormley TD, Ireland’s Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Murad said:

“We have an abysmal record of recycling plastic bags; just one bag out of every 200 or one per person per year. Gordon Brown recently threw his weight behind the campaign against disposable carrier bags, rightly saying they are one the most visible symbols of environmental waste.

“London should be leading this debate and having seen first hand the damage plastic bags do, I am delighted to launch this report today and to add my voice to the calls for a levy on throwaway bags”

What do you think? Murad is inviting Londoners to let him know their views. Should the bag be banned or should there be a national levy on single-use throwaway bags? Let us know your views here.

Today, Murad called on the Government to compensate those who lost money because of the collapse of First Solution Money Transfer earlier this year. The company ows up to £3m to 2,000 people in the Bangladeshi community of East London and is currently being investigated by the police for possible fraudulent activity.

Money transfers or remittances constitute an important part of the financial aid flow to developing countries and money sent back by relatives to those communities by far outstrips the official global aid budget.

In today’s Observer Murad said: “Firms like First Solution Money Transfer and their customers play a critical role in mobilising public responses to natural disasters like the recent Bangladesh cyclone. It would be a tragedy if this issue stops people sending out money to such worthy causes.”

In this week’s West End Extra, Murad responded to an announcement by the Society for Mayfair and St James’s that they will try and legally block the building of Crossrail.

Claims by the Society that there is no evidence that Crossrail will benefit West Central were refuted by Murad who responded by saying that it will bring more jobs and improve transport services. Murad added: “There are few in London that will benefit more than Westminster and Camden Residents”

Murad was pleased to learn that Westminster Council was forced to back down on its controversial plans to ban the distribution of food via soup kitchens at Christmas.

In the Wood and Vale newspaper, Murad had described the plan as one “Ebenezer Scrooge himself would have been proud of”. He welcomed the anouncement by saying:

“I’m not surprised Westminster have been forced to abandon their plans. I don’t who they thought would support taking food from the homeless so near to Christmas. I think Scrooge himself might have had difficulties justifying that!”