Sian Berry, Green Party mayoral candidate, answers your questions

Q:  What would you do as Mayor to improve paid employment prospects of disabled volunteers, who are all too frequently relegated to unemployment-related benefits and expenses due to lack of project funding? Posted by Alan Wheatley. Working life-long disabled volunteer

A: The Green Party advocates, and campaigns for, equal and full employment rights for all. I would work alongside the new Equalities Commission to ensure that disabled volunteers are not disadvantaged in the recruitment process, and are properly rewarded for the invaluable work which they do. 
Many projects welcome adults with learning difficulties and mental health problems as volunteers doing useful work.
However, adults with learning difficulties and mental health problems benefit through community participation, and through participating in useful work of which, with support, they are capable of, but they do not receive the recognition that would come with formal paid work. 

Increasing the funding of community projects, and also bringing in a LETS (local exchange trading scheme) would help vulnerable and undervalued adults gain greater social recognition and a new picture of themselves.   

Q:  We were promised a world class transport system from the first mayoral elections, but life on the tube has gone from bad to worse. How do you propose to bring London’s Victorian age transport system to the 21st century? Posted by Raxa Mehta

A: For a start, the Greens are the only political party dedicated to bringing the entire tube and rail services back under public ownership and run directly by TfL.  

From London tube to intercity transport, railway privatisation has been a disaster. The private companies that run the tube and rail franchises cover the basic maintenence and operational costs, and then walk away with massive profits while leaving us with an aged, creaking service.

By bringing the railways back under public control, the [revenue] generated would be ploughed back into the system, creating a sustainable, year upon year investment that will finally give us the world class transport system that we were promised.

Q:  As a London resident I have noticed an increase in hostility from the recently immigrated population towards the culture, lifestyle and the customs of the settled population of London.

Would you: as London mayor: encourage the settled population to change the way they live their lives to appease the new population or would you prefer to encourage the new population to learn and respect London’s cosmopolitan but British culture. And how would you go about it? Posted by Genevieve

A: I do not share the opinion of the questioner that the immigrated population is “hostile” towards London’s culture. To the contrary, “they” are as much a part of this culture –which the questioner describes as “cosmopolitan” – as we all are. Encouraging wider participation in society is as much a issue for all of us, too — and that includes exercising our democratic vote in this election.

Q: I work as a district nurse for Southwark PCT. We have to visit patients within the congestion area on a daily basis to administer various medical treatments. We have to pay the congestion charge, claim this back from our PCT who in turn reclaim this from TFL. If a nurse forgets to purchase a ticket and accrues a fine it has to be paid from his or her own pocket. One nurse last week had to pay over £160 in fines. Careless? No, not when we are dealing with seriously ill and dying patients. We cannot travel on public transport with medical records, body fluids and medical equipment. The sick people of Southwark are being penalised as nurses are loathe to visit the congestion area in fear of possible penalties. We are undertaking an essential service but if we were mini-cabs or vehicles for ‘pre-booked’ hire we would be exempt from the charge. This will never, ever make any sense to me. Please somebody help us. Posted by John Bailey
A: We completely agree that nurses should not be liable for these fines. We would enthusiastically support a change to the rules to avoid this in future, for example by making c-charge fines on patient visits reclaimable via the PCT and TfL in the same way as the original charge.

Q:  As the heart of the nation, London’s arterial roads that transport the nation’s economic life blood have chronic blockages that impair its health and the health of all who use them. Under Mayor Livingstone, congestion charges (statins), new larger buses (cholesterol) , more and more traffic lights (heart valves) and narrowing of the arteries by constructing more and more granite-edged islands and wider pavements have made matters far worse not better. Major surgery is needed. Do any of the candidates have plans for seriously revamping TfL,  changing the policy (and attitudes) to, for example, adopt tried and tested Tokyo methods for preventing arterial blockages - all road work at night and especially large holes covered with plates during the day. Do they agree with me that we must move with the times and construct elevated sections of road like the old Mancunian Way (say above The Highway, Thames Street and the Embankment) and again, emulate Tokyo’s road system (but do it better) where there are heart bypasses for through traffic built on stilts or in tunnels? Posted by graham mellor

A: The Green Party are dedicated to getting traffic off London’s roads, making the city a healthier, safer place to live and work.  Our core policy is to reduce traffic by 20% by 2012 in every town centre in London through a package of smarter travel measures, with travel plans for all schools and large businesses, personalised travel advice and car clubs. Y

ou mention that London’s roads impair the health of those who use them, but the emissions charge means that the cars that do travel into the centre of London will not choke up the air for those living in the city or, indeed, those using the roads.

We will take action to get freight off the arteries around London and utilise London’s vast network of rail and waterways to transport cargo into and around the city.  We strongly support local shops selling local produce, substantially decreasing levels of long distance freight transported into and around London, and a strong emphasis on local communities and local public services meaning parents are happy and comfortable in allowing their children to walk in safety to their nearest local school, thereby cutting completely the daily school run in the car.

To make London safer for people, as well as improving air quality through the emissions charge, the Greens will implement a 20mph default speed limit across London (except for key roads), and we want London a more pedestrian and cycle-oriented city, so adopting a ‘naked streets’ approach on streets with high pedestrian use (removing barriers that encourage the prioritisation of vehicles), and creating many more miles of cycle lanes is central to our policy.

Building more roads to contain more traffic is a flawed policy. Predict and provide has failed in nearly every example, and is proven only to  lead to an increase in traffic, congestion and pollution, with all the social, economic and health problems that comes with it.