Health officials must not be met with 'brick wall' over Olympic Lanes

Commenting on the decision to reject a request from NHS London for ambulances to use the Olympic Games Lanes, Ken Livingstone said:

“It should be completely obvious that when health officials say they may need to use the lanes that they should not be met with a brick wall from the Mayor’s transport officials.

“Ambulances have many urgent requirements short of using flashing blue lights, where they are moving around people in urgent need of medical care. If elected I will overrule the blanket refusal to the NHS from Transport for London and review the Olympic lanes decisions that have clearly not been settled in a satisfactory way.

“The Mayor’s transport officials sound out of touch, clearer on their obligations to VIPs than to the NHS. 

“The Games are going to be great, but there is still some way to go to make them work for Londoners.

“There are still too many unanswered questions and unresolved issues regarding the Olympic Lanes, and I have been raising these matters with Boris Johnson since last July. In addition to the problems faced by the NHS, for months cab drivers have been raising their concerns about the impact of the Olympic lanes. Likewise there are big question marks about pedestrian crossings. No action is being taken to sort these problems out, and the only way to get to grips with them is to exercise real political accountability, sadly lacking at present.”

ENDS.

Notes to editors:

1.        On 5th July 2011 Ken Livingstone wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson setting out five points relating to the Olympics that required action from the Mayor. See the full text of the letter here: http://www.kenlivingstone.com/the-olympic-and-paralympic-games-will-be-great-we-need-to-make-t

2. Ken has called for the Mayor to:

1.  Provide better information provided about the Olympic Route Network plans and their impact on Londoners and businesses.
2. Provide details in the public domain about who will have access to the dedicated Olympic lanes.

3. Prioritise road safety. Projections are that over 60 pedestrian crossings will be closed by TfL for months on some of the busiest roads in London – this is unacceptable. 

4. Let taxis use the Olympic road network.

5. Ensure that dedicated Olympic lane restrictions should be in place for the shortest possible time.