October 2005 Archives

Martin Linton asked the Leader of the House of Commons whether he would arrange for the Transport Secretary to come to the House to make a statement on navigational standards on the Thames. He went on to point out that the Battersea Bridge was still closed to traffic and that it is still legal to drive a barge in the Port of London without any training and without a licence.

Geoff Hoon replied saying that the the new boat master's licence for inland waterways, which will become law during 2006, will extend competency requirements to freight-carrying vessels in categorised waters.

Read the full exchange on TheyWorkForYou.

Martin Linton asked the Secretary of State for Transport what action has been taken by public authorities against barge drivers or owners as a result of bridge strikes on the Thames in the last 20 years.

Stephen Ladyman replied saying that only ten years of data is available and that in that time there had been ten such incidents. He gave details.

Read the full exchange on TheyWorkForYou.

Martin Linton asked the Secretary of State for Health what the change has been in the funding of St. George's Hospital, Tooting since 1997.

Jane Kennedy (Minister of State, Department of Health) replied, saying that the audited accounts of the St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust 1997–98 to 2004–05 show that income at the trust has risen by £130.4 million from £173.1 million in 1997–98 to £333.5 million in 2004–05.

Read the full exchange on TheyWorkForyou.

Martin Linton asked a number of questions to the Secretary of State for Transport all of which followed on from the the barge which recently collided with Battersea Bridge. The questions were all answered by Stephen Ladyman, Minister of State.

You can read the full questions and answers at TheyWorkForYou.com. They are here, here, here and here.

The Wandsworth Guardian is reporting that new Putney MP Justine Greening (Labour) is unhappy as the other two Wandsworth MPs Martin Linton and Sadiq Khan both voted against her amendment to the Civil Aviation Bill.

Read the full story here.

Martin Linton spoke in the debate on an amendment to clause 5 of the bill. He spoke against the amendment which, he said, would rip out the heart of the bill.

Read the full debate and Martin Linton's speech at TheyWorkForYou.com.

Transport for London has said that Battersea Bridge (which closed since a barge crashed into it in September) might not reopen until Summer 2006. Martin Linton is quoted as saying "I don't understand why it should take so long to open it to other vehicles. The last time this happened 15 years ago, the bridge was shut for nine months. I thought lessons would have been learnt from that experience so we could avoid it taking so long this time."

Read the full story at This Is Local London.

The Wandsworth Guardian runs a story claiming that the western extension to the congestion charge area will return Battersea "to its historic past as an island". The claim comes from residents but seems to be backed by Martin Linton who is quoted as saying

There are many people in the area who need to travel to shops or schools on the other side of the bridge on weekdays and it would be a hardship on them if they have to pay £8 every time.

I'm disappointed he has drawn the boundary at Westbridge and Parkgate roads as there are many people in the rest of north Battersea who do their food shopping or take their children to school in Chelsea.

Read the full story.

This is Local London are running a story about job cuts at St. George's Hospital, Tooting. They include a quote from Martin Linton:

According to Battersea MP Martin Linton, the Government has increased the budget of St George's hospital by £150 million in the past five years up from £200million to £350million.

He said: "It's not easy to control expenditure in an organisation that is growing so fast. The fact that the hospital has overshot its budget is regrettable and it now has to rein back its expenditure in line with its income, just like any other organisation."

He added, however, that it was important to keep what was happening in perspective.

Read the full story.