As a London Assembly Member it's my job to scrutinise the Mayor of London and his work.

This year, I am deputy chair of the Transport Committee again and remain Labour Spokesperson for Transport. It remains a fascinating area, especially for a South Londoner - we need to do to so much to improve transport in London and make getting about environmentally friendly! I was also very pleased recently to have been elected as Deputy Leader and Chief Whip of the Assembly Labour Group and I am looking forward to working with my well established and my newer colleagues to develop all the ways in which we can work together to hold this Tory mayor to account.

We all know that everyone needs to reduce their private car use and walk, cycle and use public transport more for the sake of everyone's future health and environment. But we need to make sure that walking, cycling and those public transport options are a safe, reliable and comfortable alternative to persuade people to swap! Most recently I have worked with the charity Living Streets - hosting a seminar on pedestrian safety in London, here at City Hall in London's Living Room - on making a contribution to the Mayor's consultation on a new pedestrian safety action plan.

Proposals for mammoth scale funding cuts across our police service, fire brigade and hospitals have been dominating recent weeks in the Assembly Chamber. Currently there is no clear information on what exactly is being proposed for our police and fire stations, which is adding to worry and confusion across the constituency. And my colleagues and I are still fighting to keep a link through Lambeth and Southwark to Victoria after the loss of the 'South London Line' rail service in December. 

My commitment to you, my constituents, is always to represent you to the best of my ability and get the best outcomes I can.  I'm also supporting our councils on key issues for them, notably the regeneration of Elephant and Castle in Southwark and improvements to areas such as Streatham and Vauxhall in Lambeth.

My aim in this website is to give you a flavour of the projects I'm working on and to get your feedback on the work I'm doing. This is where I ask for you to tell me your truth, talk about your problems, tell me what you think about major transport issues in London and say what your aspirations are for our community in South London. Please do get in touch with your views. It's not just about transport - the London Assembly also deals with policing, planning for major developments and the fire brigade and emergency planning - so if you have any concerns about these things please let me know and I will do my best to assist!

Valerie Shawcross
London Assembly Member for Lambeth & Southwark