Hello everyone,

Things are certainly busy at Parliament at the moment and I have been working on a variety of issues including the London Dial a Ride service, Heathrow. I’ve also been out and about across Putney, Roehampton and Southfields at a variety of summer community events - read on for more details:

London Dial-a-Ride service
I’ve done a lot of work on how effectively Dial a Ride is working – it’s a service that is vital for the elderly and disabled providing them with a way of staying mobile. Local users have told me that they often can’t get through to the call centre to book a ride and that they can’t easily book a trip the same day. The results of a Freedom of Information request I made to Transport for London showed that only around 30% of registered users actually used the service over the last year (that’s getting lower aswell) and hardly any users were people who had been able to ring and book on the same day. I think it’s really important this service works effectively for my constituents who depend on it, and I will be sharing the results of this work with the Mayor of London to press for a better service - one that registered users can actually use.

Heathrow Environmental Impact
I’ve been trying to find out what the environmental impact of an expanded Heathrow will be for local noise and air pollution, and also for CO2 emissions. The plot thickened last week when at the same time as I received a parliamentary answer (link below) telling me the information wasn’t available yet, BAA said they’d already been shown the environmental details (see Times article link below). I think it is unacceptable that the Department for Transport have given the data to BAA, but won’t share it with me as a local MP. I’ve written to the Aviation Minister Gillian Merron to again ask for the details and to express my concern, so I will wait to see what response I get.

Parliamentary question & Times Article

Wandsworth Cycling Campaign: Movers and Shakers
Last week, I met up with the Wandsworth Cycling Campaign who have won an award from Transport for London for the promotion of cycling. I took part in their campaign a few months ago – it’s called Movers and Shakers and is designed to support adults to feel comfortable in cycling on our roads and giving us the skills and knowledge to do so. I found it definitely helped me to polish up my cycling skills! A very big congratulations for the award to the Wandsworth Cycling Campaign and I would encourage all those interested to get in touch with them at the following link: www.wandsworthcyclists.org.uk

Out and About
We are definitely into summer fete season and a really excellent time in our community for local events. The weekend before last, I was honoured to be able to open the Queen Mary’s Hospital summer fair and on Saturday I was at St Michaels School fair launching the balloon race. If your children have a school fete, I’d love to come along and support it, so do get in touch.

Finally, don't forget to get in touch if you need my help as MP or want to raise an issue with me. Email me at greeningj@parliament.uk, write to me at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, or give me a call on 0208 944 0378 if you would like to come to one of my weekly MP surgeries

You can also keep up with my activities on my website at: www.justinegreening.co.uk.

Best Wishes,

Justine Greening MP

June 14, 2007