More Livingstone - This time with a Croydon angle
Still, on to the plot:
Livingstone speaks - “New information has now come to light. In October last year, HMRI found Tramtrack Croydon Ltd to be in breach of both the Health and Safety at Work Act and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. As a result, Tramtrack Croydon Ltd was served with two Improvement Notices. These are legal notices informing the company that they have broken the law and that in order to avoid prosecution by HMRI, they must meet certain conditions within a set time limit. Tramtrack Croydon Ltd failed to inform TfL, as they are contractually obliged to do, of these notices". Source.
Ever the one to be in favour of upholding contracts, if Tramtrack are in breach then doubtless there will, and should be, consequences. However, guess who thinks it should go just a wee bit further:
"This leaves me no choice but to call for the directors of Tramtrack Croydon Ltd to resign and for the company to sack its entire management team. I would urge the banks and shareholders to hand the company over to Transport for London so it can be safely, efficiently and reliably managed, allowing those who live or work in Croydon to enjoy the service they deserve".
Showing a most selective use of facts, Livingstone notes that two of the three improvement notices issued to tram operators have been issued to Tramtrack Croydon Ltd. Given that are only a handful of tram systems in the UK, this is not that much of a shocker, frankly. A more useful comparison would be with rail operators, and lo and behold there are multiple repeat offenders among the othe rail companies. The Office of Rail Regulation has the details, complete with monetary figures marked against each offence. Given that the figures are variously ten pence and twenty pence, if they are fines I suspect the companies were not that concerned.
That Livingstone might have more on his mind than safety, efficiency and reliability of the network is suggested by the TFL site: " TfL is directed by a management board whose members are chosen for their understanding of transport matters and appointed by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, who chairs the Board".
Naturally there has never been a health / safety breach by the underground or bus network. Or has there? The HSE has ten pages worth....
Meanwhile his phalanx of press bods are still duplicating press releases, with this (10573) and and this (1578).
Labels: Croydon, Livingstone, Odd press releases
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 5:59 pm.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, C, but haven't I read somewhere that Tramlink is technically insolvent?
Good work C why don`t you pass this on to the Coucil.It appears that ken Livingstones thrashing about is more or less at random.
Terrifying
Mr C
I put it to you that the Croydon tram presents you with unlimited opportunities for frottage, opportunities that you have been only to keen to take advantage of !
No further questions.
We will know hear from Miss X
Livingstone, really is the little arch-capitalist these days? In his own seriously deluded way of course.
They could do with extedning the tram my way a bit C. Traffic is a nightmare getting anywhere near Croydon from the East.
Nick - apparently that was the case in 2003, as the FT reported it.
PH - Sigh....
CU - You are in Bromley aren't you? Some of the natives are restless on that score...
nice link C. I am even further east than Beckenham though. Guess I'll have to whistle.
Krakatoa, east of Java, and CU east of Beckenham....
(Trouble is, Krakatoa is to the west of Java).
C,
Why don't you put this one up at ABK, even if it does call you BTC.
Serf, I was going to edit it a bit and do just that thing.
Livingstone has pretty much declared all out war on us at Croydon Council. He is not a big fan of it turning blue! In fact he was horrified to find that the GLA gave us £3.5 million to build new Council houses recently.
Good to see some local interest. I'm a Fairfielder meself.
I frequently travel on Outer Mongolian transport & the kids are always well behaved.
Like I and my mates were in the bad old days of the 60s. There were no civil rights lawyers to automatically defend bad behaviour.
I'm surprised Red Ken isn't in favour of privatising Tramlink. Prefereably by selling to a state-subsidized Spanish compania.
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