Tooting MP Sadiq Khan returned on Tuesday 2nd March to the school he himself attended, to launch the Interact Club, an off-shoot of the Rotary Movement aimed at 14-18yr olds. The club, organised by Ernest Bevin College in Tooting, will promote good citizenship of young people and aims to get them involved in their local community, while making friends and having fun.

Set up and organised by 6th form teacher Mr Hurcombe, the Interact Club will be required to undertake one local community project and one international project each year. The Ernest Bevin Interact Club’s local community project for this year will be to restore & refurbish the school courtyard, while its international community project will be to raise funds for Aquabox (a long-established Rotary scheme), where fund raising will help to purchase water purifying equipment for parts of the world that suffer from droughts and water pollution.

Local MP Sadiq Khan, who himself attended Ernest Bevin College, said: “I am delighted with the launch of such an important club for both the community and the school. By getting young people involved in the Interact Club the local area will benefit greatly and the children will develop a broad range of skills, a greater awareness for others and a respect for their local community.”

 “I wish the Interact Club had been there when I was at the school. It looks like it will be a rewarding and fun experience and I would encourage every young person to get involved!”

Here I am opening the brand new library at Franciscan Primary School - the library was very impressive. Later I addressed the school assembly and read out loud to the Year 5 class.

Last week I was a guest at a business briefing held at the Chilli Chutney restaurant in Tooting. The briefing was entitled ‘Employing Staff from Outside the European Union’ – also present was the Streatham Labour candidate Chuka Umanna. It was a very enoyable event.

There’ve been some big improvements to the Northern Line in recent years, but the recent announcement on engineering works by Transport for London, which will see extensive closures this year and in 2010, could see it again dubbed the “Misery Line”.

Tube Lines, the firm in charge of Northern Line upgrades, have doubled their original requests for weekend closures on the line and have announced it wants to close certain stations early on weeknights. Their current plan is to close the line north of Kennington from 10pm for 16 months from July and during most weekends for 20 months, starting in March.

Sadiq was among leading thinkers and media commentators who took part in debates with sixth formers at Graveney School on Wednesday.

The day-long event was organised by the Global Uncertainties Schools Network, which facilitates discussion and debate around core research areas such ideologies and beliefs, and culminated in a Question Time style session, open to the public.
 
Topics included extremism and balancing freedom with security.
 
Other panel members included Zoe Williams from The Guardian and Andrew Copson from the British Humanist Association.

Dangerous and illegal drivers were given a bad day last weekend, as local police officers and Special Constables used cutting edge technology, and good old 20/20 vision, to target uninsured and dangerous drivers in Tooting.

Tooting MP Sadiq Khan joined 14 Special Constables and 4 Metropolitan Police officers for the operation on Tooting Bec Road, which scanned thousands of cars and led to over 40 cars being stopped and checked by officers.

On Friday 26th February 2010 Sadiq Khan MP held his fourth annual Warm Front event at St John The Divine Church, Garratt Lane, Earlsfield, London, SW18 4UN. Sadiq Khan working with the scheme managers of the Warm Front Scheme, Eaga, to tackle fuel poverty in Tooting hosted the event to help people get measures that could cut their energy bills by anything up to £600 a year. Sadiq also provided for pensioners a free guide to financial support.

The event has been a great success in previous years and is aimed at providing free and confidential advice to local residents on benefits, energy efficiency grants and wider community help schemes.

To date almost one million pounds has been invested by Warm Front in Tooting with over 800 households assisted. Many of those who have benefited from the Scheme are reporting average households savings of almost £200 a year. Warm Front’s Benefit Entitlement Checks have lead to an income rise of nearly £1,500 per constituent.

Sadiq Khan MP was proud to hand over nearly £200 to staff at the Oxfam store on Upper Tooting Road, which had lent him collection buckets to raise money for the DEC Haiti Earthquake appeal.

The money was donated by Tooting residents, members of religious groups, and charitable organisations following an event Sadiq organised with Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon. Douglas Alexander MP.

Sadiq Khan MP recently met London Underground bosses to discuss their plans for the Northern Line.  Maintenance work is now underway to improve the track and signalling systems.  This will cut journey times and allow 20% more trains to run in rush-hour.

He made clear that local people must be properly consulted on the London Mayor’s proposal for all Charing Cross-branch trains to start and end at Kennington.

Public transport has improved above-ground, too. Oyster Pay-As-You-Go can now be used on trains across London, following a long-running campaign by Sadiq to get train companies and Transport for London to reach agreement.  Pay-As-You-Go often brings cheaper prices than paper tickets, without the need to queue at the ticket office.

There have also been improvements to safety and accessibility at Balham Station.  Sadiq’s campaign led directly to the installation of a lift at the station so passengers with mobility difficulties or pushchairs can use the station more easily.  And he persuaded Southern Railways to employ more staff at the station (especially in the evenings), and install high-quality CCTV and lighting.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. London Mayor Boris Johnson’s huge fare hikes mean commuters will be paying significantly more for their journeys. Oyster bus fares have gone up by 20% and Zone 1 Oyster tube fares by 12.5%, with the money going to benefit drivers in Chelsea.

Mayor Johnson has also scrapped plans for a much-needed lift at Tooting Broadway. 

After pressure from local residents, Wandsworth Council has now approved plans for a new community playground at Fishponds playing fields.
The Labour government has given the council funding to create and improve local play spaces, because we know how important it is for children's health and development.

Labour campaign team member James Daley said, "Parents have been crying out for this playground.  It's simply wrong that local kids have to go as far as Tooting Common to play, crossing the busy Upper Tooting Road."
"We're now calling on the Council to open all the fields for local residents' free use, especially at weekends and summer evenings."

A former Conservative councillor has credited Labour councillors for Wandsworth Council's recent 'Tooting Together' programme - which is helping to clean the town centre up and attract new businesses.

Councillor Susan John-Richards admitted that she and fellow Tory councillors had no success in getting resources for Tooting town centre.
She told a Council meeting that it was only when Labour made it a key political issue that the Conservative-run council began to put money into improvements.

Thanks to the work of Labour Councillors and Sadiq Khan MP, the Council has:
- Introduced rules so that shops can only leave rubbish out a certain times.  This has improved the look of the streets and is being rolled out across Wandsworth
- Gated alleys to reduce crime and dumping of rubbish
- Conducted a town centre survey to help promote Tooting to retail chains
- Introduced CCTV to monitor fly-tipping and security on Church Lane and parts of the Totterdown Estate
- Re-introduced a Safer Neighbourhood police team to patrol the town centre
- Proposed moving bus stops and removing unnecessary signs and 'street furniture' to make pavements less congested

New figures show that crime fell by 8% in the three months to September 2009.

The respected British Crime Survey – which asks people whether they’ve been a victim of crime – shows that the chances of being a victim of crime are at a “historically low level”.

Violent crime is down, and the murder rate is the lowest for a decade.
Crime has fallen by more than a third since Labour was elected in 1997.
Central to this has been Labour’s record investment in policing.  There are now nearly 5,000 extra police officers in London compared to twelve years ago.

Labour has also introduced local Safer Neighbourhood police teams to cut crime through the return of the 'bobby on the beat'.  And thanks to Sadiq Khan MP's campaigning, they were introduced locally a year early.

There are now 8 teams in our area, each consisting of at least one sergeant, two constables and three community support officers. By listening to local people's priorities and spending 80% of their time 'out and about', they've been a big part of the fall in crime we've seen in recent years.

Sadly, the Tory Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is planning to axe nearly 500 police officers in the next 3 years – just as the Tories slashed police numbers in the 1990’s when they ran the country.

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