Post Office Limited are currently consulting on proposals to close 12 post offices in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. There is a six week consultation period ending on 2 April 2008. I want to know your views on these proposals so I can take them up with Post Office Ltd.

I recognise the vital role that Post Offices plays in the social and economic life of local communities. I am very worried that, at a time when we are seeking to regenerate poorer areas of London, local shopping parades will be hit by the loss of an important local service which attracts shoppers to local shops and facilities. I am particularly concerned that the criteria for access to Post Offices has been downgraded in London – previously deprived communities in London had to be within a half mile of a post office. Now this has been reduced to 1 mile.

If you live in Westminster, K&C or H&F please spare some of your time to fill in the survey on:

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=xydjwnk93en9kpm399943

Murad Qureshi, Labour London Wide Assembly Member, is urging local voluntary and community groups working with young people to bid for a share of £5million of new funding for young Londoners announced today by Mayor Ken Livingstone.

£73million has already been pledged to the London boroughs to support projects offering young people positive activities and alternatives to getting involved in gang culture. The £5million announced today, called the “˜Young Londoners’ Fund’ is ring fenced specifically for voluntary and community groups who work with young people.

Murad said “˜This new money recognises the vital role local groups provide to our young people, providing activities, sport and education alongside those provided by statutory agencies. I hope that as many groups as possible will apply for funding to enable them to carry on their excellent work’.

Decades of under investment have led to a decline in the levels and quality of services for young people and I’m delighted that the Mayor is now taking huge steps to rectify this. If young people have more safe and fun activities to take part in they are less likely to end up hanging around on the streets causing trouble at best and at worst getting involved with the guns and knives of gang culture which as we unfortunately know, leads to tragic consequences.

Murad added: ‘This investment would provide groups like the All Stars Boxing and Youth Club on Harrow Road (W9) with alternative means of funding to that from local councils such as the City of Westminster. I hope all voluntary and community groups working with young people will apply with the LDA or their share of the youth offer by the Mayor.’

The big issue last week came from the hugely disappointing announcement from the Post Office proposing to close up to 1 in 5 of London’s local branches. Clearly this will affect the elderly, young families and those on benefits disproportionately more then anyone else in our communities.

One group who would be be effected by the proposals are the many small Asian family businesses, many of whom stand to lose their livelihoods. Those running post offices and those benefitting from the trade the post office attracts to the typical high street could be decimated if the proposals go ahead.

I will be raising these and other issues with Post Office Ltd, urging them to reconsider. I encourage anyone worried about the impact of losing these vital local services to do the same.

On a more cheery note, it was heartening to see the potential impact that the Mayor and government’s joint investment in London’s youth provision could have. Last week l visited one of the training sessions of the London Tigers at Paddington Rec – where l once played sport and stayed out of trouble after school.

l bumped into Muhammad, who now goes to my old school. He told me proudly that the school had won the schools’ football championship last year and that he was a member of the winning team.

It was much the same in my time when my year’s team won the championship several years running and it was all down to the dedication of our PE teachers giving boys like me their time and energy. The £80 million now going to youth services will keep more young people like Muhammed off the streets and away from the lure of gangs.

Knocking on doors around London it is quiet clear what the issues are for Londoners: crime, transport and housing – but not necessarily in that order. Added to this, particularly in West London, is the expansion of Heathrow Airport proposals which has been attracting huge public meetings in a lot of town halls. Amidst all these meetings and door knocking, I managed to see the African Nations Cup final with an excited Egyptian audience!

It is clear that the fear of crime is the issue when discussing it with folk on their doorsteps, and while it can be shown clearly that crime rates are going down, it is fear of it which is driving most people, particularly when we have young people hanging around. So in this respect the Youth Offer made by Mayor Ken Livingstone appears to going down well.

Public transport can clearly be better but its also clear people have noticed the difference public investment is making on our buses, tube and rail service. And finally the issue which has been too often been ignored but the Mayor intends to make a huge impact on during a third term – the availability of affordable housing. Too often I hear on the doorstep stories of overcrowding and the inability of young adults to leave home and set up another home nearby. So not surprisingly the investment programme of 50,000 homes over next 4 years goes down well.

And then we have the proposed expansion of Heathrow. This is clearly causing alarm and the business and environmental arguments of the Government aren’t getting through to residents who feel they will suffer a reduction in their quality of life. Let’s hope the Environment Committee report from the London Assembly can contribute to the debate when it is launched next week.

And finally it’s not all door knocking and meetings! I managed to switch off while watching the African Nations Cup final in the Nile Cafe in the company of Egyptians while smoking a shisha. The Egyptians were clearly the better team against the Cameroon and it was a deserved win for them. So I went to bed with the Edgware Road in my neighbourhood celebrating well into the night. Let’s just hope the six times winners of the Cup fare much better in the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

This month, the Mayor gave the green light to the proposed scheme on emissions related congestion charging. The scheme aims to discourage the use of the highest CO2 emitting cars from entering the zone.

Under the new rules, from 27th October 2008 there will be a £25 charge for cars that emit 226 grams of CO2 or more per km. Among the cars that fall into this category are SUVs or so-called “˜Chelsea tractors’. The proposals are good news for owners of smaller cars with low CO2 emissions that meet the Euro 4 standard for air quality. TfL, on behalf of the Mayor, has proposed a 100% discount on the Congestion charge for such cars. I certainly welcome the proposal to increase congestion charge for gas guzzling 4x4s, as I have always believed them to pose a serious threat to the environment as well as pedestrian and child safety. Driving a Chelsea tractor in a city environment is completely unnecessary and I am hoping that this move will lead to more people opting for smaller and more eco-friendly cars.

It’s been heartening to see the national press focus on the contest for London’s mayoralty, but we should not forget that on the same day the political make-up of the London Assembly will also be decided.

If, as we hope, Ken is re-elected on 1 May he will need 9 Assembly Members to vote through his budget, strategies and initiatives. At present he relies on a red/green alliance of seven Labour members and two Greens in the face of Lib Dem/Tory opposition. Without this support in the Assembly, Ken’s annual budget would be blocked and along with it funding for more police, to tackle climate change and to improve public transport.

The role of assembly members, of which 25 will be elected on the 1 May (14 to represent constituencies and 11 by a proportional party list system) is to scrutinise the activities of the Mayor and hold him to account. We will ignore the Assembly elections at our peril. Support for Ken must go hand in hand with support for Labour on the Assembly. This is the only way to guarantee that he will get the support he needs to push through measures to improve the lives of all Londoners. The danger is that an Assembly with a Tory-Lib Dem majority will make life very difficult for the Mayor and block the progressive consensus that has developed in the last eight years.

Finally, and most importantly, it is the Assembly elections which could easily see the BNP elected. At the last GLA elections in 2004, the BNP came within 5,000 votes of getting gaining a seat on the Assembly. That is the equivalent of just a handful of votes in each ward in London. An improved performance this time round would be a disaster for London, undermining our multi-cultural and diverse capital in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics. It is worth remembering that, because of the proportional electoral system, every vote, no matter who it’s for, will increase the number of votes the BNP need to be successful. So use your votes: to stop the BNP and ensure our progressive Mayor can push through his programme, and vote for the Assembly Members and the party who share his values and his vision for our great city.

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