Meet The Candidates
Who wants to be Ealing and Hillingdon GLA member?
The candidates standing to represent Ealing and Hillingdon as GLA member on May 5th are:
- FRUZZA, Francesco Rossano Alberto - London Liberal Democrats
- GILHAM, Dominic - The Conservative Party Candidate
- HANS, Meena - The Green Party
- NIEORA, Alex - UK Independence Party (UKIP)
- SAHOTA, Onkar Singh - Labour Party
We have offered each of them the chance to write their candidate statement.
Alex Nieora - UKIP
ABOUT ME I am a lifelong Ealing resident. I obtained a degree in law and have worked for various law firms and the UK government. More recently I set up my own business as a property manager.
I have campaigned on many local issues and have experience with lobbying the London Mayor and London Assembly. I chaired the North Ealing Against HS2 residents’ group and successfully campaigned to get the government to amend their plans and put HS2 in bore tunnel for 9km under the LB Ealing instead of an overground route. This prevented homes from being bulldozed and the Hanger Lane roundabout from being partially closed for 3.5 years. I have also campaigned successfully to reduce business rates for struggling local high street shops and to tackle street drinking and dumping. More recently I have campaigned to stop illegal dangerous pavement parking on a busy road near a local primary school in Perivale. I am also active in my local residents' association and have organised a number of local fireworks and music festivals. I spend a lot of time litter picking.
LOCALISM AND GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY I believe passionately in localism and grassroots democracy. That means not only repatriating centralised unaccountable powers from the EU back to national and local level but also UKIP's policy to recall unpopular MPs and to hold legally binding local referenda on major issues when enough local people sign a petition. I believe that local people should decide how their NHS and public services are run, not unelected bureaucrats and the corporate interests pulling the strings in Brussels. I encourage everyone to vote to leave the EU in the forthcoming EU Referendum on 23rd June. TTIP (the extremely unpopular Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and EU that threatens our NHS and public services), our lack of control over our borders while in the EU and the impact of EU regulations on the cost of living and small businesses are concerns local residents frequently raise with me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to repatriate decision to the local level, where politicians can be held properly accountable for their actions.
LOCAL HOMES FOR LOCAL PEOPLE UKIP’s London manifesto offers new, constructive solutions to the problems London faces today, and if there is one theme that runs through our proposals its this: UKIP puts Londoners first.
600,000 people have left our city in the past decade, not necessarily because they want to but because they simply cannot afford to live here any more. UKIP will invest in social housing and prioritise social housing for local residents who have lived in the area for at least 5 years. We would also create a Brownfields Site Register to ensure we maximize building potential on brownfield sites while protecting our greenbelt land. Locally we must oppose the acquisition and development of Warren Farm by QPR and protect this invaluable local green open space for future generations. We would also follow the London Land Commission’s recommendation that 130,000 homes could be built on commercial and industrial land owned by the public sector. We oppose the sale of social housing estates such as the South Acton Estate and their replacement with private housing. In the case of the South Acton Estate social tenants have only been compensated with 60% of the value of their homes meaning most who have grown up in Ealing will have to leave the area. This is a disgrace.
IMMIGRATION
Tackling London’s housing crisis simply by setting arbitrary house building targets and protecting our social housing stock will not solve the problem unless the current unprecedented rate of migration into the capital reduces. The overall number of London residents has risen from 7 million to 8.5 million in the last 16 years. This is almost entirely down to immigration. UKIP are the only party that will ensure urgently needed controls on unprecedented levels of immigration and UKIP in the London Assembly would lobby government to replace open door immigration from the EU with an Australian type points based system that means both more control over numbers but also a fairer policy which does not discriminate against people from outside the EU.The BBC recently conducted a poll and found that after housing immigration is the biggest issue for Londoners but the reality is the two are inseperably linked. If we are to stand a chance of delivering homes and protecting our greenbelt the answer to the London housing crisis – and indeed the London transport capacity crisis, school places crisis, policing crisis, and public services crisis – must also involve slowing demand. That means reducing the immigration rate.
TRANSPORT
UKIP understands the financial pressures facing commuters and the poorest. We would scrap vanity projects such as the £75m garden bridge project in central London and £24m Emirites Airline and ensure that excessive spending on management in TfL is reviewed and frozen. The head of Crossrail is presently paid a basic salary of £700,000 and there are 300 employees at TfL paid in excess of £100,000. We would reinvest the money saved into reducing fares in zones 4-6 and creating a 90 min bus fare. We would expand the cycle super highways and the Santander hire scheme but also ensure that appropriate action is taken against cyclists who flout traffic rules and put themselves in danger – running past red lights and cycling on pavements where roads are safe to cycle.
UKIP completely opposes Heathrow third runway and HS2.
For a full list of our policies for London – our London manifesto can be found here: http://www.ukip.org/ukip_s_london_manifesto_2016
27th April 2016