Labour’s London Mayoral Candidate Ken Livingstone visited King’s Cross junction today to support Camden Labour’s campaign for safer roads.

The have been a number of accidents in Camden  culminating in the recent tragic death of a cyclist on the junction of Euston Road and Gray’s Inn Road in King’s Cross.

Labour candidate Ken Livingstone said, “I’m visiting King’s Cross today to see for myself the issues that London cyclists are raising about this and other problems. If I am elected I will act immediately to address the cycling safety problems ignored by this administration.

“I believe there are three decisions that the next Mayor should take immediately when elected, as this one will not do so. Firstly, the new Mayor must identify junctions where cyclists have recently been killed, and look again at the safety measures at these locations. Secondly, there is currently nowhere that cyclists can report concerns about safety and dangerous junctions on TfL’s website. It’s time for the Mayor and TfL to create a new online tool to enable London cyclists to easily report their concerns.  Thirdly, and specifically, the next Mayor should act as this Mayor has not, and listen to the views of cyclists by making the 20mph speed limit on Blackfriars bridge permanent.”

Local King’s Cross Labour Councillor Jonathon Simpson said, “We have written to the Tory Mayor Boris Johnson demanding urgent action to deal with these unsafe roads. So far he has refused to meet local residents and to make the roads safer for cyclists. It is time for urgent action before there are yet more casualties”.

A consultation outlines the Government’s plans to scrap and replace the current system used to finance councils across the country. The proposed replacement would be a complex formula whereby councils retain a proportion of the business rates they collect.

Figures produced in Camden show that the benefits of even major regeneration schemes would be negligible and therefore the Government’s objective of driving growth will not be realised.  Over the next 10 to 15 years, the King’s Cross area of Camden will see extensive redevelopment and regeneration resulting in a substantial net increase in the business tax base, but, under the Government plans, the council will only see a marginal increase in revenue as a result of this growth.

Labour Councillor Theo Blackwell, Cabinet Member for Finance said, ‘King’s Cross is a prime example of where this policy should work, but doesn’t.  The regeneration of King’s Cross, with nearly half a million square metres of new business and employment space, is predicted to generate £4 million of additional business rates revenue, of which, under current plans, Camden would only receive around £1.5 million. This small benefit would really only cover the additional costs we would incur to provide new public services to the growth area.

‘The proposed system is overly complex with unpredictable rewards and even less incentives to promote growth. That is why these proposals need to be taken right back to the drawing board so there can be real incentives for growth locally’.

Until June 2008 King’s Cross had a dedicated Street Warden service. The Street Wardens had been instrumental in reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in the area. But despited the huge success of the service, and completely ignoring the wishes of local people and councillors alike the Liberal Democrat led Camden Council scrapped the dedicated service for King’s Cross.

Now every time we speak to local people, on the doorstep, at meetings and on the phone the first thing they raise is the rise in anti-social behaviour and the return of crimes like on street drug dealing and prosititution. You don’t need to take our word for this – have a look at the ward based crime figures from the Met Police.

With local people we fought the removal of the service in the first place. Now with over a years evidence of rising crime and anti-social behaviour – enough is enough. King’s Cross needs this service to stop it sliding back to the bad old days. You can support our local campaign by signing our petition.

Meanwhile we’re really busy working with police and council officers to try and get action on some of the worst behaviour. If you’re experiencing crime or anti-social behaviour let us or the police know, it will help us build evidence and tackle the problem.