Dave Hill: Fears of tiers

The Mayor has warned that London could be subjected to tighter Covid-19 restrictions very soon, maybe by the end of this week. At present, like most of the rest of England, we are ranked “medium” alert, which means the lowest level of the new three tier system announced by the government yesterday. But unless our infection rate stops rising, we could be reclassified as “high”, which means the middle of the three tier ranking range. Simple isn’t it?London business groups have underlined their wish that any changes are backed by robust and transparent scientific evidence – which doesn’t seem a lot to ask, but possibly is – and continued to ask for flexibility around the 10:00 pm curfew, which they fear might be making public health matters worse. Meanwhile, an influential London Tory MP has told On London she is hopeful that ministers will eventually support a big push to get visitors back to the capital. Let’s hope her optimism is well-founded.

In other Covid-related news, yesterday, I finally published my long-gestating feature entitled Croydon: the budget gap, the town and the Town Hall. About six hours later, the leader of the council announced that he is to step down. The two things are not thought to be connected.

And then there’s Lewisham’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood. The borough’s Mayor, Damien Egan, has said the promised changes to it will be announced this week. Getting LTNs wrong is probably easier than getting them right. That problem might well be discussed at Thursday evening’s LTN debate, jointly organised by On London and the London Society. Get your free ticket HERE.

Thanks for reading,

Dave Hill.

PS: The photo is of St James’s Park. I hope it brings you a little joy.