GLA (Greater London Authority) and MAYOR - Essay Example

?TOPIC: GLA AND MAYOR TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………… Pg 2 POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES…….…………………………………… Pg 2 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES………………………..……………………… Pg 3 Carbon Reduction……………………………………………. . Pg 4 Energy Preservation……………………… Pg 4 Plantation…………………………………………. Pg 5 Waste and Recycling…………………………………………… Pg 5 Promoting Agriculture for Local People…………………….. Pg 5 Clean Air………………………………………………………….. Pg 5 Development of Public places…………………………………… Pg 6 CRITICAL ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………… Pg 6 STUDENTS OPINION REGARDING MAYOR’S POLICIES……………… Pg 7 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………… Pg 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................... Pg 9 INTRODUCTION: GLA stands for an abbreviation of Greater London Authority which is a top most administrative body of Greater London England. According to norms of regulations, Mayor is elected through a local referendum within assembly which possesses a right to regulate certain regional sectors like transport, economic development, policing and fire and emergency planning. The purpose for electing a mayor is to represent London through one person who is responsible for all its development, strategic planning and peace discipline. Boris Johnson is the present mayor of London holding an authority according to Greater London Authority act 1999 and 2007.( GLA Report, 2009) POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Greater London authority is funded by the central government and local council taxes to carry out their desired plans. GLA itself does not work on any project, whereas holds an umbrella under which four major functional bodies work on the directed plans released by mayor. These four departments are the functional bodies which are: Transport for London. Metropolitan Police Authority. London Development Authority. London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. GLA is responsible to communicate with internal bodies and London Borough councils are legally bound to follow strategic plans and if not, than Mayor has the right to decline the decisions that are not in interest of London or its public made by London Borough GLA claims to be a successful practitioner in regard to their planned strategies in terms of providing a quality life to all Londoners. Keeping the developments made by GLA in London, Government proposed a plan in over handing more powers and responsibilities to Mayor to work with better framework of all sectors including all the remaining sectors which were not under Mayor Authority previously like housing, skills and education, environment, waste management, and planning. This proposal was released on 30th November 2005 after reviewing all the achievements made through proper strategic planning and implementations. Some of the successful plans carried out to maintain the competition with the rest of the progressing cites in the world. London is a financial hub which makes a major contribution in the economy of United Kingdom. To meet the unique challenges, Mayor designed strategies to maintain the efficiency of Londoners involving minorities with a clear layout of Capital investment projects. Some of the successes Mayor achieve during his rule show an investment of 10 billion pounds on transport development project, security measures were improved by increasing the number of police around 8000, a joint venture with government of childcare program was introduced, the most complimenting achievement was the selection of London for hosting Olympic Games of 2012. Thus Mayor and GLA progressed towards bright prospects of London and therefore, GLA in support of Mayor accepted some workable options with further financial contribution from Government of London. Mayor demanded additional powers and responsibilities to work collectively for the betterment of London after which he introduced some major environmental policies and set their priorities for different projects. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES: Boris Johnson won his election to be a mayor on his environmental policies of having greener London. In his plan he briefed a strategy of investing huge budget on environmental programs to save London from the upcoming consequences of Global warming. It is explained in his plan that setting up new projects will give a large number of job vacancies which itself is a positive vision. He emphasized that an ample amount of government services budget will be cut down to be invested in one of his designed plans. He laid some extra ordinary plans which were surely a way to meet the energy shortage in the next few years and to prevent London from natural disasters which only occurs due to excessive pollution. Some of his policies are as follows: CARBON REDUCTION: He says that carbon emission is the most destructive element in collapsing the natural balance of environment which is supposed to be cut down through different means like introducing low-carbon vehicles or electric cars. He assured people of reducing 60% of carbon till 2025 which requires an amount of Euros 60 billion to reach the target, out of which government will contribute to Euros 800 million in bringing in new electric cars by 2018. His major emphasis was to save London, a financial hub of United Kingdom. ENERGY PRESERVATION: In this regard, he briefed his plan in improving energy efficiency of homes which requires a budget of pounds 193 million from public money and wants government to infuse Pounds 70 million to 90 million in the next three years. This will help clean the air we breathe in, which is helpful in reducing health problems. This aspect includes one of his bold strategies of installing energy busting LED for greener traffic lights at around 3500 places which is approximately more than half of London. PLANTATIONS: He emphasized on planting more trees to save London from issues like air pollution. He projected to plant 2 million trees which cover 25% of London. This will project London as a greenest city and will show that London is fighting hard to save mother earth and its beauty. WASTE AND RECYCLING: This is London’s most critical issue which needs to be resolved as soon as possible because London dispose its waste in the surrounding lands which cannot be continued for long so London has to set up some strong recycling projects to manage waste within. Roughly figures were given that Londoners can save up to 90 million Pounds through using recycled products. PROMOTING AGRICULTURE FOR LOCAL PEOPLE: Mayors’ initiative of Capital Growth will allocate 2012 pieces of land by 2012 to grow and have food which will be economical and healthy. This can lead to a lot of opportunities for people to work and earn. CLEAN AIR: Under this strategy, hybrid busses are being introduced and get strict with maximum age limit of transportation vehicles like minicabs and taxis which will help keep the air clean for people to breathe. DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC PLACES: When it comes on the beautification of London city, Mayor leaves no questions for people to rise. He took a vigilant look and planned a strategy to upgrade Public Parks and shopping malls by installing energy efficient lighting system which will later help run the colorful fountains throughout the year. He committed to invest 6 million pounds on the maintenance of their 11 beloved parks across London. All these plans were not just to protect the environment but will bring new jobs for thousands of people and skilled labor like electricians, plumbers, builders, roofers, gardeners etc. These plans were designed to improve issues like noise and air pollution, biodiversity, unemployment, waste management, and climatic problems. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: When London was honored of getting the chance to host Olympics 2012, it seemed to be the biggest achievement and GLA was confident on signing the agreement with a specification that the city will respect the International Pollution Laws. Immediate measures were taken of assigning responsibilities for organizing Olympics 2012 which involved four functional bodies: LOCOG: London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. ODA: The Olympic Delivery Authority. LDA: London Development Authority. Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 Mayor addressed them with their responsibilities and laid an outline of how the Olympics will be delivered in 2012. These organizations are responsible for the complete program. Each have their own duties to carry but unfortunately, it did not come out the way it was promised to the public of London. “Sustainability was an important element of our bid and underpins our preparations and our vision for the legacy of London 2012.” London 2012 Chairman, Seb Coe This is the most encouraging statement but here a question arises: Does it working out this way? Reality tells us that Olympics preparations and Routes are causing a huge percentage of air pollution which cannot be cut down until 30% of traffic is banned. Whereas, it is also said that Britain would be charged a penalty of about 175 million pounds by European Union and it is expected to put a draconian ban like in 2008 Olympic Beijing. "The organizers have failed on many of the promises. They are a long way short of the inspirational revolution in environmental policy we were promised." said Darren Johnson, London assembly Green party member. Mayor in his strategies promised on several other issues like waste recycling, Athlete village, Energy Consumption, Construction, Food, Wildlife Park, and Olympic Flame. Mayor pledged different positive schemes of organizing the greenest Olympics ever. In regard of constructing Olympic venue and stages, he proposed that 90% of demolished materials will be reused and will be brought in by rails and seaways. It was observed that 95% of the demolished materials was recycled and melted but only 1% was reused in the Olympic venues. It was stated that this Olympics will going to be a zero waste program in which no waste will be sent to landfill but it is coming the other way, food waste are sent to Bedfordshire and no measures are taken to improve waste policies. Another major is issue of accommodating athletes in a village in energy self sufficient homes and the proposed number of houses were 8000 which is now decreased to amount of 4700. A lot of issues like low flame Olympic torches are expected as promised. Londoners are getting effected in each way because increase in air pollution and waste will contaminate their health as well. STUDENTS OPINION REGARDING MAYOR’S POLICY: Mayor showed serious concerns over the rising population of London and the possible reason he mentioned was the number of migrations to United Kingdom. According to the report, half of the UK migrants live in London and the rest also prefer coming to London which not only creates accommodation problem but also lead to crime issues. He focused on the Asylum seeker that this needs to be revised and local funds need to be increased to address these quantifying numbers of people, crossing city borders. These restrictions can lead to serious problems for people on General Skilled Migration as they find problems in getting quality jobs or accommodation. He stand firmly on his point in favor of Londoners that a limited quota will be provided to foreign students otherwise this will lead to a serious problem of unemployment for young students of age 19 to 24. Further he briefed that later in few years 100.000 British students will fail to get admissions in Higher Universities which is heartache. Boris Johnson was the one who took stand for increasing Education Quota for low income Londoners who might leave education if not affordable.Vice Chancellor of Oxford’s university is demanding an increase in fee structure which Boris Johnson found it more practical by providing a reason that only quality students from foreign should come and take a deserving seat otherwise Education funds released by the government will not be able to accommodate every increasing burden. He individually emphasized that financial assistance will also be provided to British students and foreigners as well but ratio will be higher for Londoners. Survey report of Student’s opinion in this regards was that these policies can make them go back to their homelands as they cannot find better options in any other cities in UK than London. This threatens their bright future and life ahead. He appreciated the education system followed in London universities and claimed that a huge number of bright students are willing to come from all around the world and the income from foreign students contributes 5 million pounds annually. Later he mentioned that when he address foreign students that means students from outside EU because students within are getting a great deal in education assistance. (Article: EU students 2010) Students were found uncertain with their opinions because increase in fees will isolate their chances, whereas some students were neutral and was waiting for the timing to get implemented to watch results. A large number of students were not happy because of the favors proposed to Londoners only. CONCLUSION: A vast majority is still hoping and expecting high from the current Mayor, Boris Johnson. His proposed strategies were quite reasonable to make London a better place to live in. Unfortunately, a huge number of people got disoriented after watching failures in the proposed plan but GLA is struggling hard to maintain the promises made with constant effort and management. It is true that any government would take a little time to overcome the challenges, which is a fair deal to make but public and oppositions expected really high was looking for an instant solutions. GLA and Mayor are successful in fulfilling some of their projects like plantation and energy efficient houses, low carbon emission etc. These issues are not completely resolved but immediate measures were taken to get rid of these threatening problems. They are coping make London the greenest place to live in, which is a strong contribution in saving mother earth from Global Warming, but this is a hindrance for Mayor to grow his political powers because Environmental issues are the major threat to UK’s economy, and hosting Olympics and Soccer World Cup in 2018 will lead to more threats. Boris Johnson won election on his idea of going green and attracted majority which now turning their backs as they did not get the results from the Mayor. Recently formed constitution have kept all soft corners for Mr. Johnson aside and have started working together to stop people from getting mislead in the name of scientific facts like environment. Mayor’s proposed plans were costly and number of taxes were introduced on public which burdens their budget as well and a huge amount was regularly served on projects. People are objecting on paper plans and demanding a practical approach towards his strategy. Boris lead administration needs to revise their policies to stop from getting bankrupt as these policies were based on scientific facts and figures which many claims that these figures are never certain to maximum. Changes are always observed in calculations and figures given by science and spending trillions on judgments can lead to several economical crises which are irreparable. In short, Mayor’s plan was not coordinated and carried out firmly which gave spaces to rivals to stand hard and speak against. Otherwise, beginning was not bad and plans also looked appropriate in this era where Globe is getting imbalance because of pollution and leading to serious issues like premature deaths and abnormal births which can ruin generations. ( The Independent : Johann Hari 2009) Johann Hari spoke in regard of Boris policies where he supported two things and critised the rest of his watered plans. He encouraged the strategy Boris offered to millions of illegal foreigner to come forward and live legally, this lead to a correct population figure. On the other hand he criticized that Boris Green policies ended up with no color at all and lead to economic crises and at the same time he offered to subprime sectors where people can own homes. According to famous Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugmen, this decision will bring London back to scratch. The worst thing Boris Johnson did was to isolate himself when he was asked to answer his policies and defend his philosophy, but he never answered to people who helped him win. Bibliography: REPORT: GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY: Leading Greener London July 2009 The environmental sustainability of the London 2012 Olympics and Paraolympics Games The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson cracks-down on Olympic budget, 15 May 2008 Report: Core GLA Environment Policy: published in 2004 ARTICLE: EU Student in UK Universities: March 22 The Independent News: Johann Hari, Wednesday, 8th April 2009. Politics, Planning and Homes in a World City ( Duncan Bowie 2010) News Articles: London.gov.uk, priorities: environment. \";studentshare" Read More