On Friday afternoon, it was my good fortune to meet my neighbour Councillor Mark Bennett (he literally lives in the building next to mine!). He’s a really good guy to chat to, and, made sure he had plenty of time go over things with me, so much in fact that we were able to cover some other areas of concern I had about the community that aren’t relevant to this site.
He’s genuinely excited about this campaign - he’s a proper Streathamite and is interested in anything that can be done to improve our community.
I asked him if he was willing to make any concrete commitments to this campaign, and, he offered the following promises. He’ll provide what ongoing support and advice he can, he will advocate strongly on our behalf within the council and, he’ll arrange for questions to be asked of the appropriate authorities as and when they are needed. Certainly when we need questions asked (particularly of TFL who seem to be a fairly close-lipped institution) he’ll be one of the first people we approach.
We followed on from my discussions with Chuka the previous day, particularly with respect to how to run an offline campaign. He urged a strong focus on petitions and canvassing. Unfortunately, our campaign does not yet have the resources for the latter, but we are exploring ways to do the former.
He’s going to dig through some of his old documents and try and find some of the old materials and petitions he had from when he was part of the charge to bring trams through Streatham.
He’s going to explore giving us some publicity in “Lambeth Life”, Lambeth council’s regular newspaper publication, and, he’s drawn my attention to a couple of other local publications who may be willing to run an article or two on our behalf. I’m in the process of contacting them now.
There was one other publicity idea I shared with him, one that I am quite excited about as it happens, but it would need council support. He’s indicated he’s onboard and will be seeing if he can arrange a modicum of council assistance to get it underway. I won’t say any more, because he’ll need to discuss it with his colleagues before it can go any further - suffice to say, if he succeeds, you’ll be hard pressed to avoid hearing about this campaign if you live in the area.
One particularly good idea he shared was to send an open letter to all candidates in the next Mayoral election, trying to extract commitments from them while they are trying to be elected to office. We’ve mulled this over a bit, and have decided that it will be something we’ll definitely do, but want to wait until a) it is closer to the election and b) this campaign is more widely known.
Overall, it was a tremendously valid use of my time, and, I hope he shares the sentiment.
As I said at the beginning, he’s a tremendously easy guy to talk to, and, I understand he runs regular surgeries where one can raise their concerns or seek his counsel. If you have something council related you’d like to discuss, I’d strongly recommend you go and see him.
His website can be found at http://markbennettlabour.wordpress.com/ or you can get his contact details and surgery dates and locations from here http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/moderngov/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=153.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Meeting with Chuka Umunna, Labour candidate for Streatham
This morning, it was my privilege to have a somewhat bleary eyed meeting with Chuka Umunna along with his assistant Joe. Chuka is Labour’s candidate for Streatham in the upcoming elections - Keith Hill is stepping down and Chuka is his replacement.
They’re both really nice guys and have a much firmer grasp than me on how the politics of a campaign like this works. They were kind enough to share some of their insights and experience with me - both of which are invaluable to us. In the brief time we spent together I learnt a great deal.
Chuka was good enough to compliment me on the online campaign, but pointed out that many of our potential supporters are not online (not regularly at least) and therefore, unlikely to see this campaign unless it is complemented by more traditional campaigning methods. While we were aware of this problem, apart from a few skeletal ideas, we didn’t have any firm plans (yet!) on how to address it.
Fortunately, Chuka to the rescue!
He is (or will be) approaching small businesses around Streatham with printed material advocating bring the tube here - this should be great exposure for us, and, while I forgot to mention it to him in the meeting, I of course invite him to link to this website. There was also some talk of pen and paper style petitions in the area, but I’ll need to come back to you later on that when the idea is developed a bit further.
We also discussed potential routes and whatnot, and he indicated that he has approached TFL about their plans and, that some early feasibility studies have been carried out in the past. Most of the historical problem with underground railway in South London has been the soil type apparently - whilst not impossible, the clay (or sand) makes it prohibitively expensive. My understanding is that recent technological advances in tunneling have mitigated this somewhat, but unfortunately, Chuka, like me, has neglected to subscribe to the thrill a minute publication “Today’s Tunneling”, and was unable to shed much further light on the technical details.
Chuka was very pleased that the other parties are also behind this campaign - he feels, as I do that this is an issue which isn’t divided along political lines and, was focused on the good of the community, rather than simply what he can take credit for. This is an attitude that I find extremely laudable, particularly in light of the adversarial nature of politics.
He also mentioned that this is an issue that personally interests him as well as politically, and, recalls, even as a small child, asking his parents why we don’t have the tube here when it seems so logical to do so. I’m guessing that a similar attitude is held by most long term residents.
He made it clear that the primary focus of this campaign needs to be to exert pressure on the Mayor of London, and, as well as, to a lesser extent, bring our plight to the focus of the national government - something Chuka is fortunately currently well placed to do. He also indicated that he will continue to ask questions of TFL and, where possible, inform the public of their answers as well as to do what he can to continue our efforts with the Mayor.
I look forward to continuing to work with him on this.
My one regret from this morning’s meeting is that I forgot to ask him how to pronounce his name!
They’re both really nice guys and have a much firmer grasp than me on how the politics of a campaign like this works. They were kind enough to share some of their insights and experience with me - both of which are invaluable to us. In the brief time we spent together I learnt a great deal.
Chuka was good enough to compliment me on the online campaign, but pointed out that many of our potential supporters are not online (not regularly at least) and therefore, unlikely to see this campaign unless it is complemented by more traditional campaigning methods. While we were aware of this problem, apart from a few skeletal ideas, we didn’t have any firm plans (yet!) on how to address it.
Fortunately, Chuka to the rescue!
He is (or will be) approaching small businesses around Streatham with printed material advocating bring the tube here - this should be great exposure for us, and, while I forgot to mention it to him in the meeting, I of course invite him to link to this website. There was also some talk of pen and paper style petitions in the area, but I’ll need to come back to you later on that when the idea is developed a bit further.
We also discussed potential routes and whatnot, and he indicated that he has approached TFL about their plans and, that some early feasibility studies have been carried out in the past. Most of the historical problem with underground railway in South London has been the soil type apparently - whilst not impossible, the clay (or sand) makes it prohibitively expensive. My understanding is that recent technological advances in tunneling have mitigated this somewhat, but unfortunately, Chuka, like me, has neglected to subscribe to the thrill a minute publication “Today’s Tunneling”, and was unable to shed much further light on the technical details.
Chuka was very pleased that the other parties are also behind this campaign - he feels, as I do that this is an issue which isn’t divided along political lines and, was focused on the good of the community, rather than simply what he can take credit for. This is an attitude that I find extremely laudable, particularly in light of the adversarial nature of politics.
He also mentioned that this is an issue that personally interests him as well as politically, and, recalls, even as a small child, asking his parents why we don’t have the tube here when it seems so logical to do so. I’m guessing that a similar attitude is held by most long term residents.
He made it clear that the primary focus of this campaign needs to be to exert pressure on the Mayor of London, and, as well as, to a lesser extent, bring our plight to the focus of the national government - something Chuka is fortunately currently well placed to do. He also indicated that he will continue to ask questions of TFL and, where possible, inform the public of their answers as well as to do what he can to continue our efforts with the Mayor.
I look forward to continuing to work with him on this.
My one regret from this morning’s meeting is that I forgot to ask him how to pronounce his name!
A letter from the Rt Hon Keith Hill
Just a very quick post, today I got a reply from Keith Hill MP for Streatham. I'm sure he won't mind me quoting his letter here:
Dear Mr Martin,
Thank you for your email in support of a tube link to Streatham.
I have long been a supporter of extending the tube to Streatham and have previously led campaigns - both in opposition and in government - to try and make it become a reality. As minister for transport in London, I was forever pressing London Underground on the question, but there were always other priorities, not lease making up for the massive maintenance backlog on the tube Labour inherited from the Conservatives.
As you know the current campaign - centred on extending the Bakerloo line southwards from Elephant and Castle - has been launched by my good friend Chuka Umunna, who has been selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Streatham at the next election. I will be retiring as the local MP having been in the role since 1992.
Naturally, I am at hand should Chuka require my assistance, but I believe it is important that I give my successor that I give my successor the space to make this issue his own - and of course he has already made a good start in persuading Transport for London to look at the Streatham option. I would therefore suggest that the best person to offer your services to is Chuka. I understand that you are meeting up with him this week.
I will certainly bear your concerns in mind as the debate develops.
Yours Sincerely,
Rt Hon Keith Hill MP
As you'll see shortly on this site shortly, I did have the chance to meet with Chuka today.
Further, I feel Mr Hill does himself somewhat of an injustice in this letter - he leaves the impression that he's currently being hands off with this issue and leaving it to Chuka. I had the chance to meet him recently (on an unrelated personal matter) and, whatever your thoughts for or against his political views, he did give the impression of a man who cares deeply about his constituents. Further, he did go out of his way to make sure Chuka was appropriately briefed before our meeting this morning.
My point here is, please don't hesitate to keep the pressure for this issue on Keith, Chuka & Chris Nicholson, all of whom are listening, and all of whom are likely to push all the harder if the members of their constituency keep at them.
Dear Mr Martin,
Thank you for your email in support of a tube link to Streatham.
I have long been a supporter of extending the tube to Streatham and have previously led campaigns - both in opposition and in government - to try and make it become a reality. As minister for transport in London, I was forever pressing London Underground on the question, but there were always other priorities, not lease making up for the massive maintenance backlog on the tube Labour inherited from the Conservatives.
As you know the current campaign - centred on extending the Bakerloo line southwards from Elephant and Castle - has been launched by my good friend Chuka Umunna, who has been selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Streatham at the next election. I will be retiring as the local MP having been in the role since 1992.
Naturally, I am at hand should Chuka require my assistance, but I believe it is important that I give my successor that I give my successor the space to make this issue his own - and of course he has already made a good start in persuading Transport for London to look at the Streatham option. I would therefore suggest that the best person to offer your services to is Chuka. I understand that you are meeting up with him this week.
I will certainly bear your concerns in mind as the debate develops.
Yours Sincerely,
Rt Hon Keith Hill MP
As you'll see shortly on this site shortly, I did have the chance to meet with Chuka today.
Further, I feel Mr Hill does himself somewhat of an injustice in this letter - he leaves the impression that he's currently being hands off with this issue and leaving it to Chuka. I had the chance to meet him recently (on an unrelated personal matter) and, whatever your thoughts for or against his political views, he did give the impression of a man who cares deeply about his constituents. Further, he did go out of his way to make sure Chuka was appropriately briefed before our meeting this morning.
My point here is, please don't hesitate to keep the pressure for this issue on Keith, Chuka & Chris Nicholson, all of whom are listening, and all of whom are likely to push all the harder if the members of their constituency keep at them.
Making money
Despite being quite new, this site is already starting to get a substantial amount of traffic... if current trends continue (and there's no reason to think they won't), then there is the opportunity for some revenue from that traffic in terms of unobtrusive advertising.
Now... I'm not a great fan of website advertising and the first thing I install when putting in a new browser is ad blocking software - that being said, I don't really mind the Google style stuff, it's out of the way, and, occasionally relevant and handy.
Following on from my meeting with Chuka this morning (which I'll post on later), there are some ideas that could be great to get the support of those folks who don't spend their days and nights glued to a screen. Unfortunately, traditional public awareness campaigns are many orders of magnitude more costly than delivery via the internet. While I am happy to pay for the cost of the internet side of things (within reason), traditional campaigning is outside our budget.
I do stress that any revenues generated would only be spent on campaign related expenses.
What do people think? Sound off in the comments? I'll hold off on making a decision for a month or so to give people a chance to offer their opinions.
For completeness, and curiosity's sake, here's a summary of the money I've spent so far:
$7.95 (about a fiver) - StreathamTube.com domain
£12 - Ebaying a new toner cartridge (but we use that for other things as well)
Free - Twittering
Free - Facebook group
Free - Mailing lists x 2 (Google Groups)
Free - this site hosting on blogger
Free - Yahoo pipes, backend for RSS on site
Free - Mail hosting (and docs, calendar, contacts etc - although we haven't used them yet) on Google Apps
Free - Google Wave
Now... I'm not a great fan of website advertising and the first thing I install when putting in a new browser is ad blocking software - that being said, I don't really mind the Google style stuff, it's out of the way, and, occasionally relevant and handy.
Following on from my meeting with Chuka this morning (which I'll post on later), there are some ideas that could be great to get the support of those folks who don't spend their days and nights glued to a screen. Unfortunately, traditional public awareness campaigns are many orders of magnitude more costly than delivery via the internet. While I am happy to pay for the cost of the internet side of things (within reason), traditional campaigning is outside our budget.
I do stress that any revenues generated would only be spent on campaign related expenses.
What do people think? Sound off in the comments? I'll hold off on making a decision for a month or so to give people a chance to offer their opinions.
For completeness, and curiosity's sake, here's a summary of the money I've spent so far:
$7.95 (about a fiver) - StreathamTube.com domain
£12 - Ebaying a new toner cartridge (but we use that for other things as well)
Free - Twittering
Free - Facebook group
Free - Mailing lists x 2 (Google Groups)
Free - this site hosting on blogger
Free - Yahoo pipes, backend for RSS on site
Free - Mail hosting (and docs, calendar, contacts etc - although we haven't used them yet) on Google Apps
Free - Google Wave
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Meeting with Chris Nicholson, Lib Dem candidate for Streatham
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of a long chat with Chris Nicholson, the Lib Dem candidate for Streatham who has already pledged to get behind this campaign and offer what support and assistance he can.
He’s a very nice man with a wealth of political experience, and, proved happy to share that experience with me in the hopes that I can use some of his savvy to make this campaign a successful one.
We discussed at some length the idea of this campaign being politically affiliated - something I feel would be counterproductive. Somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway) he agreed with me. He expressed the view that while, as a politician, it’d be nice for him to be able to claim credit, in this case, the issue at hand is not at all controversial, and anyone with Streatham’s best interests in mind would be in favour of bringing the tube here. It’d be foolish to limit support to one side of the political fence.
In terms of options, he also said that he’d heard someone floating the idea in the past of extending one branch the Northern line from Kennington up this way. I’ve not had the chance to research this idea at all yet, but my initial feeling is that unless something were done to ease overcrowding on that line, it’d be unlikely to be achievable.
He noted that he, like many of us I am sure, hasn’t driven out to Gatwick during anything approaching peak hour for a long long time. As we all know, the A23 is more carpark than road a lot of the time.
Further, and perhaps more usefully, he’s given us contact details for various Streathamites who may be able to help our campaign, as well as some details of others in positions of authority that are likely to be willing to lend their support.
Finally, he provided me with a question from his party member, Caroline Pidgeon, to Mayor Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson’s answer is inconsistent with what I have read elsewhere (although what I have read elsewhere may not be reliable), so I’ll just quote the entire question an answer below without further comment. He also said he’d be willing to put relevant questions forward to Caroline to be asked if it was helpful - I fully expect to take advantage of that offer at some stage.
Underground to Streatham
Question No: 3025 / 2009
Caroline Pidgeon
Can you confirm whether London Underground is currently considering any proposals to extend the Tube system to Streatham and whether funding is available from the Government for any such proposal?
Answer by Boris Johnson
London Underground is not currently considering any proposals to extend the Tube system to Streatham. LU has undertaken preliminary work in the past to look at the feasibility of southern extensions to the network, including identifying some route options and looking at their technical development.
Of these, extending the Bakerloo line south from Elephant & Castle emerged as the option with the most potential.
A Bakerloo southern extension would allow the line to serve inner and outer southeast London, creating a new southeast to northwest strategic route through the Capital, serving areas with poor transport accessibility and freeing up National Rail capacity at London Bridge for other service improvements.
Given current funding constraints, we are not in a position to take forward the more detailed analysis required to progress an extension and our priority is to complete the renewal and upgrade works already planned on the Tube, including the upgrade of the Bakerloo line.
I am determined to secure the investment needed to improve Underground services for south Londoners when the Government decides on the level of the next funding package, which begins in 2017. Any construction of an extension to the Bakerloo Line would begin after 2020 at the earliest.
One wonders if perhaps there were more ivory towers in Streatham in which people worked before racing back to the Caribbean and other exotic locales, maybe priorities might be different.
Tomorrow, I’m off to meet Mr Chuka Umunna, the Labour candidate for Streatham to discuss his support and advice, something I’m looking forward a great deal.
He’s a very nice man with a wealth of political experience, and, proved happy to share that experience with me in the hopes that I can use some of his savvy to make this campaign a successful one.
We discussed at some length the idea of this campaign being politically affiliated - something I feel would be counterproductive. Somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway) he agreed with me. He expressed the view that while, as a politician, it’d be nice for him to be able to claim credit, in this case, the issue at hand is not at all controversial, and anyone with Streatham’s best interests in mind would be in favour of bringing the tube here. It’d be foolish to limit support to one side of the political fence.
In terms of options, he also said that he’d heard someone floating the idea in the past of extending one branch the Northern line from Kennington up this way. I’ve not had the chance to research this idea at all yet, but my initial feeling is that unless something were done to ease overcrowding on that line, it’d be unlikely to be achievable.
He noted that he, like many of us I am sure, hasn’t driven out to Gatwick during anything approaching peak hour for a long long time. As we all know, the A23 is more carpark than road a lot of the time.
Further, and perhaps more usefully, he’s given us contact details for various Streathamites who may be able to help our campaign, as well as some details of others in positions of authority that are likely to be willing to lend their support.
Finally, he provided me with a question from his party member, Caroline Pidgeon, to Mayor Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson’s answer is inconsistent with what I have read elsewhere (although what I have read elsewhere may not be reliable), so I’ll just quote the entire question an answer below without further comment. He also said he’d be willing to put relevant questions forward to Caroline to be asked if it was helpful - I fully expect to take advantage of that offer at some stage.
Underground to Streatham
Question No: 3025 / 2009
Caroline Pidgeon
Can you confirm whether London Underground is currently considering any proposals to extend the Tube system to Streatham and whether funding is available from the Government for any such proposal?
Answer by Boris Johnson
London Underground is not currently considering any proposals to extend the Tube system to Streatham. LU has undertaken preliminary work in the past to look at the feasibility of southern extensions to the network, including identifying some route options and looking at their technical development.
Of these, extending the Bakerloo line south from Elephant & Castle emerged as the option with the most potential.
A Bakerloo southern extension would allow the line to serve inner and outer southeast London, creating a new southeast to northwest strategic route through the Capital, serving areas with poor transport accessibility and freeing up National Rail capacity at London Bridge for other service improvements.
Given current funding constraints, we are not in a position to take forward the more detailed analysis required to progress an extension and our priority is to complete the renewal and upgrade works already planned on the Tube, including the upgrade of the Bakerloo line.
I am determined to secure the investment needed to improve Underground services for south Londoners when the Government decides on the level of the next funding package, which begins in 2017. Any construction of an extension to the Bakerloo Line would begin after 2020 at the earliest.
One wonders if perhaps there were more ivory towers in Streatham in which people worked before racing back to the Caribbean and other exotic locales, maybe priorities might be different.
Tomorrow, I’m off to meet Mr Chuka Umunna, the Labour candidate for Streatham to discuss his support and advice, something I’m looking forward a great deal.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Press coverage!
I'm pleased to say, we got some press coverage today... hopefully this trend will continue and expand.
You can have a quick shifty at what they have to say here:
http://streathampulse.wordpress.com/about/bringing-the-tube-to-streatham/
You can have a quick shifty at what they have to say here:
http://streathampulse.wordpress.com/about/bringing-the-tube-to-streatham/
Mailing lists
If you'll check the links section to the right, you'll notice that some mailing lists have been created.
Members of the announcements list will get very occasional updates on how the campaign is going.
Members of the discussions list will be able to discuss the campaign with other members, make suggestions, organise events and whatnot.
Members of the announcements list will get very occasional updates on how the campaign is going.
Members of the discussions list will be able to discuss the campaign with other members, make suggestions, organise events and whatnot.
Needless to say, your email address is and will continue to be well protected and will never be used for marketing or any purpose inconsistent with this campaign
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