London Assembly members questioned recycling experts, retailers, venues and Transport for London yesterday to find out how best to increase recycling in the capital. Many of us with an environmental bent and a weekly routine for putting out our doorstep recycling regret the rubbish we must bin away from home. Surprisingly, it seems it took a Coca Cola representative to point out to them that, less than half of their plastic bottles are recycled,......

One of Boris Johnson's manifesto pledges was to remove bendy buses from the streets of London and replace them with a next-generation Routemaster - a populist promise that played well in London's hinterlands, where the moneyed folk rarely ride public transportation. While the second half of that pledge is hostage to the whims and ideas of folk who entered the design competition, the first half looks to be on track: a consultation is currently......

Last month the Londonist brought you the news that the British Fashion Council (BFC) had decided not implement a recommendation from the independent Model Health Inquiry to issue models with a health certificate to verify that their body mass index (BMI) is healthy. This would have meant that models with a very low BMI, which signifies an increased risk of eating disorders, would be banned from working at London Fashion Week. The BFC's refusal......

It’s been another bruising week in the London mayoral election campaign. Eccentric Tory contender Boris Johnson may have had the best of it. On Tuesday Ken Livingstone announced that drivers of gas-guzzlers will be charged £25 to enter the Congestion Zone from October – assuming he’s re-elected. The Greens support the move, but the Lib Dems’ Brian Paddick – he’s the gay, “cannabis cop” from Brixton, you’ll recall – was critical, notably of the same......

There's some bickering occurring in the London Assembly over just how much crime is occurring on London buses. While Tory transport committee chairman Roger Evans is saying that crime levels have risen on buses, Labour Assembly members John Biggs and Murad Qureshi are contesting this, accusing Evans of scaremongering and twisting the findings in the transport committee report to provoke fear and support prejudices. Biggs and Qureshi have produced a separate report that backs......

Ken's been coming under the cosh for his fact-finding trip to Delhi last month. The mayor and his long-time nemesis, Tory councillor Brian Coleman, have been flapping barbs at eachother in the London Assembly, with the Barnet bruiser landing a number of heavy blows on Livingstone, accusing him of taking a "larger entourage than the Queen". He went on to question whether Ken's fellow visitors Myleene Klass and a group of dancers from the......

Whilst we, the London punters, expressed overwhelming support for action on throw-away shopping bags last week the big high street retailers have been mewing at the London Assembly opposing an outright ban. Under DEFRA's new waste strategy the major UK supermarkets and other large retailers are committed to reducing the environment impact of carrier bags by 25% by 2008. Whatever that means. But they're reluctant to back a ban as it diminishes choice and......

A snack bar in Westminster is fined £2,500 after the council find a whole world of filth. Members of the London Assembly have passed a vote of no confidence in Sir Ian Blair. Doesn't really make any difference. Two of the world's top 10 universities are in London. Tfl's trial of live CCTV streaming on London's buses is shelved. Image courtesy of Homemade via the Londonist flickr group.......

The fourth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory). Sian Berry is the Green's candidate for next year's elections. Unlike the Tory rivals we've previously interviewed, she is a strong supporter of the congestion charge. She's the only person we've ever known to use the words 'The North London Line is good'. And she's also got a......

In a week of transport woe, we've all felt a bit shortchanged. The exact scale of shortchanging due to the Tube strike has been explored already and yet more controversial financial consequences of protesting have been unveiled. It apparently cost £7million to police the Heathrow climate change protest in August and it was the Metropolitan police who paid up. The protest required 11 days of security in about 16,000 shifts which is quite a......

Members of three transport unions are downing tools in September. And it's a packed diary of inaction. September 3: a 72-hour RMT/Unite strike begins at 6pm. September 4: a 48-hour TSSA strike begins (time not disclosed). September 5: TSSA strike concludes. September 6: RMT strike concludes at 6pm. September 10: a second RMT/Unite strike begins at 6pm. September 13: RMT/Unite strike concludes. The strikes are the latest fallout from the collapse of Metronet - the......

Well, ish. It's been announced that drivers of three thousand cabs now have the choice to use a new biofuel fuel mix. Each driver that opts for it will get their mitts on a nice green sticker to proudly stick to their windscreen. A handful of cabs parked next to City Hall this morning for a photo opportunity to celebrate. Or it might have been to chauffeur certain London Assembly Members around, we're not......

Once it became evident that someone the chap in the street had actually heard of was willing to go forward, the Conservatives closed nominations for their 2008 London mayoral candidate last Monday. Former Met Commissioner John Stevens, rubber-lipped former Defence Sec Michael Portillo, ex-PM 'Sir' John Major, sacked BBC D-G Greg Dyke and, erm, Nick Ferrari had all resisted the overtures of David Cameron for some reason best known to themselves and their future......

After an amazing weekend for the capital, we were wondering how long it would be for some good old fashioned political bitching to start. The answer seems to be "about 8 seconds" as Mayor Ken Livingstone launched an attack on a "staggering" £10,000 taxi bill put in for last year by one single London Assembly Member, Brian Coleman. Coleman chaired the assembly and claimed the costs were not for taxis per se, but car......

That racquet has lain dormant in your cupboard for 50 weeks now, but you know at the back of your mind that, before this week is out, the temptation to imitate the grace of Sharapova or the swashbuckling of Federer on your local patch of grey concrete will be near irresistible. The start of Wimbledon signals the only fortnight in the year when you couldn't walk on there any time you like, the sight......

It seems we're writing more and more about London Transport these days. Now it's the turn of the London Assembly to have their say: they want to make buses safer. Isn't that nice of them? So they're asking you, British public and residents of London how to make it crime free and a happy travel experience. Some would call this forward thinking. Others might say it was passing the buck. So, the crime free......

In 2012, eight out of ten London tourist sites will be inaccessible to people who can’t use stairs. So reckon the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly. Their Olympic spokesperson, Dee Doocey, told the BBC: Disabled athletes and visitors to the Games travelling on the Javelin trains from Stratford to St Pancras will not be able to continue their journey into central London to visit the capital's top attractions because most of the Tube......

You've got to love a headline like this one: London backs £12m space mission Sadly we're not going to set up a new borough on the moon (a day return to the Phantom Zone would cost a fortune and the shuttles don't have Oyster readers installed yet), but we are investing in a new satellite to handle mobile phones in the capital. Probably needed after the added strain left by Twitter. The technology will......

We're drowning in paper: Up to 12 tons of newspapers a day are being abandoned by commuters on London Underground stations and trains, new figures show. The statistics were revealed by Ken Livingstone following a question raised by the London Assembly Conservatives at Mayor's question time in January. They have asked Transport for London to install more newspaper recycling points on the network to tackle the problem. Sure recycling is one way forward, but......

Rumour has it that the SAS use the Northern Line to break new recruits. Put 'em down the holes in High Barnet and Edgware then pick up the pieces in Morden at the end of the day. They rebuild them as unflinching fighting machines because they know the worst is behind them. Every now and then you spot one of the few who didn't make it, mumbling and lost on the escalators at Kennington.......

Lesser known areas of the capital may be in store for an influx of tourists. A report from the London Assembly is urging Visit London to promote attractions outside Central London, and the Chair of the Assembly’s Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee, Dee Doocey, fully supports the findings: "Outer London is home to a range of attractions that are less obvious but just as worth a visit as those that central London......

There is a lot to like about the Liberal Democrats - the little yellow bird they have as their emblem, the nice old man they have running the show - but today they've churned out a survey with the usefulness of a Cornish nationalist in the Scottish parliament. The survey, carried out by London Assembly's Liberal Democrats, found an adult ticket at Leicester Square can cost £12.45 more than in Europe The 'survey' shows......

The London Assembly has a new report showing that there's a lot more helicopters hovering over the city than there used to be: The study highlights Londoners' growing concern about helicopters adding to the "misery" of airplane noise. It wants to introduce a charge for using the capital's airspace and calls on the government to take action to tackle helicopter noise pollution. A congestion charge for air traffic - interesting. They also want quieter aircraft,......

The London Assembly is pondering what's going on with London's allotments. The Environment Committee is apparently going to look into whether allotments are disappearing to make way for things such as the Olympic Village in Stratford. With luck, they might even suggest what to do about it, because it'll be a little disappointing if the outcome of their investigation was 'Yup, they're disappearing,' and they left it at that. The timing is fortuitous (ok,......

Bit of an eco two pronger this one - first up is the news that while big companies are encouraged to do all they can to recycle, smaller firms are being sidelined: The London Assembly's environment committee has published a report claiming smaller businesses are being all but ignored in the drive to promote the use of recycled products... It is totally unacceptable for the Mayor, LDA and London Remade to focus only on......

Bob Neill, Tory candidate for tomorrow’s by-election in Bromley and Chislehurst after the death of Eric Forth last month, hasn’t had an easy campaign. He seems to be getting into lots of legal problems for a lawyer. Firstly he misused the House of Commons crest, using House of Commons headed stationary to threaten legal action against the UKIP. Next he got into trouble with FIFA for infringing their image rights after using an image of......

How did a thirteen-year-old kid end up in Tooting, driving a grey Ford Fiesta which had bullet holes in the door? Sir Ian Blair has said he won't resign, quoting Mark Twain into the bargain: "accounts of my demise are premature." Knob. The London Assembly has noted the number of affordable homes has fallen 'quite sharply from 44.9% in 1997/1998 to 28.2% today. Ken has brought the 'car pollution tax' one step closer by......

Pupils from a Southwark school will hand in a peace petition and a dove of peace sculpture, made out of toy guns, toy soldiers, war planes and coins to Downing Street in the run-up to the UN Summit on Small Arms in New York. The London Assembly is questioning the 'value and effectiveness' of money spent promoting tourism in the capital. A new survey into just how miserable a place London could be has......

A report by the London Asssembly into the response to the 7 July attacks is to be published today. John Tulloch, the man whose face became one of the iconic images of 7 July has written a book about his experiences. The Observer interviews him. The Tories in Bromley and Chislehurst have chosen Bob Neill, leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, to replace Eric Forth. Neill is not part of Cameron's 'beautiful'......

The man stabbed in Wood Green was attempting to stop shoplifters when he was stabbed. Rudy Neofytou is still in a crtitical condition in Middlesex Hospital. The London Assembly has produced a report on what can be done to encourage the use of the capital's playing fields in order to stop them disappearing. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy meanwhile has claimed that parts of the city exceed European Union air pollution limits by up......