Boris breaks election pledge on campaign to re-zone Kingston and Surbiton
11th July 2008
Kingston and Surbiton's Liberal Democrat MP, Edward Davey, has expressed his "deep disappointment" that the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has already broken his election pledge over the campaign to re-zone Kingston and Surbiton train stations.
During the London Mayoral campaign, Boris Johnson told local newspapers - the Kingston Informer and the Surrey Comet - that he would support the campaign of local MP, Edward Davey, to win cheaper rail fares for local people, by having Kingston and Surbiton stations moved from zone 6 to zone 5. Edward Davey had welcomed this pledge as a "boost" to his campaign, and wrote to the new Mayor on his first day in office, asking for a meeting to discuss the campaign's next step.
After a reminder letter, Boris Johnson has at last replied, but in his letter he completely fails to agree to any meeting or offer any help at all to Edward Davey's campaign, and merely asks to be kept informed.
Commenting, Edward Davey MP said:
"I am deeply disappointed that Boris has backed down on his pledge and is refusing to do anything active to support our work.
"Boris is in a great position to help our campaign - as boss of Transport for London, overground train services in the Capital came under his control last November, as his own letter admits, and he therefore has real financial clout and influence with South West Trains to make the re-zoning happen.
"My re-zoning campaign will continue, with or without the help of the Conservative Mayor, but it will make it much tougher and will delay any chance of a successful outcome for at least a year, if not more.
"Nor have I given up on trying to hold London's Mayor to his election promise. I will try one more polite letter - but I may need to ask both the papers and local people to help me."
|
