How much more of London is the Mayor willing to sell off?
Is nothing sacred anymore? Although, we’d heard about the Emirates deal with the Mayor of London, it was still a little disheartening to see such an iconic emblem of London polluted with the long arm of commercial advertising. Logo advertising has a knack of sanitising a product but when that product happens to be nearly 80 years old, it looks even more unpalatable.
December 19, 2011
The 40th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh this weekend, with the name quite literally meaning the land of Bengalis. It is more formally known as the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh and was founded on four principles - secularism, democracy, nationalism & socialism. Its very often the first principle which is debated the most when looking back at where the country was and is today.
But lets not forget its liberation came after a 9 month struggle against the genocidal war launched by the Pakistani army. This after the 1970 General Election in Pakistan where the Awami league had won a majority of seats. In early December 1971 we had the military intervention of India and the surrender of the Pakistan army on the 16th of December, curtailing a war which the Pakistani army could not have maintained indefinitely if only because of the distance between East & West Pakistan.
Its formation is really a story of two partitions, the first in 1947 with the creation of Pakistani and subsequently in the struggle and liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. If it illusrates anything its that religion in itself is not the sole basis of creating a state that needs to be considered when creating new states. Equally important is language, culture and geography. As soon as Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1948 declared Urdu the state language of Pakistan in Dhaka he set off a trail of events through the language Movement in East Pakistan which eventually feed the linguistic nationalism and economic injustices felt by Bengali Muslims. Many of whom had enthusisatically said Pakistan zindabad at independence from colonial rule in 1947 but by 1971 were happy to see the way forward as the formation of Bangladesh by saying Joi Bangla instead.
Like the Punjab, the British Raj had divided Bengal into two along religious grounds. First during its adminstration in 1905 and also on its departure from the Indian sub-continent based on the Redcliffe line. The irony of these religious divisions is that in West Bengal, India today up to 25 per cent of their population is Muslim. So much for this imaged religious divide.
So clearly there are some important lessons to learn for secularists about Islam and democracy at the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh, particularly in the Indian sub-continent context. But its clear that the struggle and liberation of Bangladesh can be cited as one of the first instances of linguistic nationalism in the world.
December 18, 2011
The law has failed to address the concerns of the City Airport campaigners
At the last Environment Committee meeting we looked at the planning conditions imposed by Newham Council on City Airport as a pre requisite for its expansion from the current 80,000 to 120,000 flights annually. This includes safeguards to mitigate noise and air pollution. Nonetheless, despite the conditions which City Airport are obliged to meet, l still felt the Mayor should have been able to call this one in.
Since the permission was granted, there has of course been a judicial review challenge in the High Court which was lost. This is not surprising considering our legal system can be a rigid tool with little regard for common sense, in other words, the failed legal challenge in this instance illustrates well the old adage that the law can be an ass! The issue of airport expansion is often a 3 dimensional concern rather then just 2 dimensional. Flight paths leading into and out of an airport have an environmental impact on adjoining boroughs as well as in the borough in which the airport is physically based.
Therefore, it is surprising that when airports make a request to increase capacity, the Mayor of London does not even get a look into the matter. Naturally, the local authority in which the airport is based has a vested interest to secure what is often a major employer in its borough, however, airport expansion has far reaching affects beyond its borough’s boundaries and for this reason, it commands the strategic powers of a Mayor to make a strategic decision in the interests of the whole of London. The Mayor’s powers to call in a decision is unfortunately limited by various conditions which are required in order to trigger his intervention, for example, when there is a construction of a facility at an airport or when there is an application to increase passenger numbers by 500,000, however, if the Mayoralty is going to stand up for anything then it be should at least be for Londoner’s increasing concerns about airport expansion within Greater London.
Powers to call in a planning application with a strategic impact on London should be devolved to the Mayor by central government, regardless of number thresholds. This way the Mayor would not be able to pass the buck to the local planning authority when asked about these issues, as he did at People’s Question Time in Ilford on the 18th of January 2010. It is not good enough for him to use disingenuous arguments as he did then, that relevant noise issues can be assessed and resolved at a borough level by the relevant local planning authorities, rather than at a strategic or London wide level.
Airport expansion in the South East and the Mayor’s ideas for this has been a much widely debated topic recently, however, the Mayor’s scope for intervention should begin a lot closer to home looking at real plans which propose expansion for real airports which actually exist and impact upon people across London now.
December 14, 2011
City Airport begins public consultation on the Airport Stand Replacement Project
On the 1st of December, I chaired a meeting of the London Assembly Environment Committee which met with representatives from City Airport including its Chief Executive, Richard Gooding. The main topic for discussion was the planning consent by Newham Council which permits them to increase flight numbers from 80,000 per year to 120,000. We also got the chance to discuss issues such as air quality, noise and the additional measures which City Airport have had to put into place in order to comply with the council’s section 106 agreement (conditions for the planning consent). I was therefore surprised by their lack of reference to their current consultation to replace their airport stand. The consultation is intended to inform their planning application to Newham for the replacement parking stands and an associated passenger pier to accommodate the new larger Bombardier CS100 plane which is expected to replace some of the smaller aircraft currently using the airport.
Larger planes are a pretty nifty way which appear to be used as a tool to increase capacity without actually increasing the number of flights. This “covert” form of expansion is something which I’ve witnessed at Heathrow and indeed highlighted in the past but I did not expect to see this at City Airport. The practice of employing larger planes throws up a number of environmental issues such as bigger planes probably mean more noise and more pollution and increased surface access movement. Yet passenger numbers remain a neglected measure of airport capacity. This was confirmed by Richard Gooding’s response to my question to him about this at the December meeting. He was clear that passenger numbers as a measuring cap had not been used until now. With plans afoot to introduce bigger planes, this is something which City Airport should begin to consider particularly within the context of their 120,000 permitted flights courtesy of Newham council. It is also, perhaps, an issue which the planning authority should have considered when they set the conditions for the original planning consent allowing an increase in flight numbers? One thing for sure is that when Newham are asked to consider the application from City Airport for these new stands, they should exercise a great deal more diligence when it comes to the consultation of its neighbouring boroughs to avoid another judicial review which ensued after the last application by City Airport.
For now, you can have your say here
December 13, 2011
