FEATHERSTONE TO STAND DOWN AS LONDON ASSEMBLY MEMBER

12.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 1st Jun 2005

Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and now Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone, will today announce that she is to stand down from the London Assembly in order to devote her time and energies to her constituents.

Ms Featherstone was first elected as a Liberal Democrat Londonwide member to the Assembly when it was established in 2000 and has held a number of prestigious posts including Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Member of the London Commission for Racial Equality and Member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

Ms Featherstone has led a series of high profile campaigns in the Assembly including tackling bus driver behaviour; reducing fare dodging; opposing the PPP of the Tube; scrutiny of the Congestion Charge reform of Stop and Search; improving police 999 response times; probing parking enforcement in London and revealing the hidden unreported crime figures.

Lynne Featherstone said:-

"It has been an honour and a privilege to work for Londoners and try to help make the capital a better place to live. It has often been the case that ideas that the Mayor has dismissed out of hand from the Liberal Democrats have miraculously become Livingstone's new policy announcements six months later.

"It is been a wonderful experience but now is the right time for me to stand aside and focus exclusively on helping my constituents in Hornsey and Wood Green. It would be an impossible task for me to, at the same time, perform my duties as both as an effective Member of Parliament and hold Mayor Ken Livingstone to account as a London Assembly Member.

"I look forward to working with my Liberal Democrat colleagues at the Assembly on key issues like the lack of affordable housing, the increases in violent crime, the shoddy public transport system and the cost of Ken, that continue to affect the quality of life in the capital."

ENDS

Notes to editor

An announcement on who will replace Lynne Featherstone as a Londonwide list Assembly Member will be made on Thursday 2nd June

Biography of Lynne Featherstone can be found below:-

London Assembly Member Lynne Featherstone

Elected MP for Hornsey and Wood Green 5 May 2005.

Liberal Democrat Party

Constituency: Londonwide

Elected on 10 June 2004

GLA responsibilities

· Chair of the Transport Committee

· Member of the Standards Committee

· Member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority

Other roles

· Member of the Commission for Racial Equality

Key issues and concerns

· Transport - because London has ground to a costly and polluting halt

· Environment - because Londoner's health and well-being are paramount

· Equalities - because discrimination in whatever form must be eradicated.

· Crime and Policing - because people have a right to feel safe and because communities and the force that police them must be able to trust each other

Additional information

Lynne is a director of an electrical company with ten branches across the capital and the former strategic design consultant to the UK's largest transport consultancy. She has spent most of her professional life working with architects, planners, urban designers, civil engineers and transport consultants.

As a strategic design specialist she is also the author of a professional book 'Marketing and Communication Techniques for Architects' (Longmans). She is a member of Haringey Council after winning in the ward with Labour's largest membership in London.