This trades council believes that the Tories’ Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an attack on the democratic right to protest, falsely and hypocritically justifying these restrictions on Covid
We note that:-
• the government factsheet on the Bill explains that it will “strengthen police powers to tackle non-violent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on access to Parliament”
• Under this proposed legislation we face a fine of £2,500 for not following police restrictions over how we conduct our protests.
• Effective protest that is considered a “public nuisance”, will now be a statutory offence rather than a common law offence.
• The police will have the power to assume protesters have knowledge of conditions set on a protest, making it easier to convict for ‘breaches’ of their undemocratic restrictions.
• The Home Secretary will have the power, through secondary legislation, to define “serious disruption to the activities of an organisation”.… Read on ...

In 2019 the Mayor of London awarded a PFI contract to build the Silvertown Tunnel, despite huge opposition from local residents, environmental groups, CLPs, Labour councils, and prominent Labour MPs. The estimated cost of the project has now doubled to £2 billion.
Opposition is multi-faceted; evidence shows that the tunnel would worsen air pollution, traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and is also financially unviable. One impact would be to enable HGVs to cross the river into one of London’s most polluted areas, passing dozens of schools and nurseries where tens of thousands of children play and learn.
Furthermore, research from the Tyndall Centre shows that London’s transport policy is currently incompatible with the rapid decarbonisation required to reach targets aligned with the Paris agreement, and the tunnel would only make matters worse. TfL will be reliant on high traffic revenue from tolling the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels to repay PFI financing at time when reducing car usage is crucial.… Read on ...