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Sadiq Khan became final evening facing fresh questions over his public spending habits amid scrutiny of London’s globe-trotting ‘evening tsar’ who has been jetting spherical the world despite bigger than 1,100 bars and clubs shutting in the capital in barely the previous three years.
Amy Lamé, the girl assign accountable of rejuvenating evening custom in the city, has been criticised for travelling to Australia, Italy and Spain while presiding over the decline of London’s nightlife.
City Hall final evening insisted the journeys were necessary to ‘piece simplest discover learn from other cities and fabricate partnerships’, but critics say Ms Lamé – who is on £117,000-a-year working for the Mayor and also works as a DJ on BBC Radio 6 – is struggling to define her journeys overseas.
Industry chiefs and Tories are questioning whether she is providing value for money as startling figures indicate the capital is falling at the again of cities similar to Liverpool and Birmingham.
It comes as Mr Khan sparked fury for splurging bigger than £6million on a woke rebrand of the Overground and a string of other initiatives together with the derided ‘say Maaate’ anti-harassment campaign and the controversial Recent Year’s Eve fireworks selection negate.
Amy Lamé, pictured here with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, travelled to Australia, Italy and Spain in the plot of 300 and sixty five days in her role as ‘evening tsar’
Ms Lamé (second left) pictured with evening mayors from other nations at a gathering in Sydney
Whereas nightlife in rather a lot of cities is struggling to bounce again following the pandemic and is now suffering a double hit with the price of residing disaster, the decline has been more marked in the capital than elsewhere.
Figures from Square-Up, a firm which processes payments for companies, talked about that in terms of the sheer assortment of transactions Liverpool and Birmingham have now overtaken London.
One discover found that 1,165 venues have closed in London since pandemic, and the head of 1 industry physique says that while all cities in Britain are facing concerns, Ms Lamé has to acknowledge to for London’s awful performance.
Michael Knill, the CEO of the Evening Time Industries Association (NTIA), suggested The Occasions that he believes that while the ‘evening tsar’ has to oversee all 32 boroughs of London – a job that is draw higher than others in her space elsewhere – there are serene questions that want answering.
He talked about: ‘There is a giant difference between signposting and virtue signalling and using tangible swap. We discover diverse announcements but no longer so many results.’
He claimed ‘the industry feels there hasn’t been a accurate ample disclose for us’ and that while there had been helpful initiatives similar to the females’s evening safety charter, more is wished.
Ms Lamé’s journeys overseas – which saw her shuttle to Sydney, Bologna and Madrid in the plot of 300 and sixty five days in 2022 and 2023 – were no longer paid for by the taxpayer and were in its assign funded thru private donations.
Nonetheless, they have serene raised questions about whether they are a correct employ of her time, with Mr Knill asserting ‘we’ve got purchased such financial pressures at home, other people in the industry are asserting, ‘Why are you there when strive to be here?”
Peter Fortune, Conservative London Assembly member for Bexley and Bromley, suggested the publication he became no longer necessarily in opposition to Ms Lamé travelling overseas to promote the city.
He talked about: ‘Nevertheless I must look outcomes on fable of these journeys. What’s came about on fable of Australia, of Bologna? Where’s the bang for the buck?’
Ms Lamé (preferrred) pictured with the vice mayor of Bologna (centre) and the evening mayor of Trento (left) for the duration of a time out to Italy
The journeys taken by Ms Lamé, who also works as a presenter for BBC Radio 6, were funded thru private donations
Ms Lamé took up the role of London’s evening tsar in 2016 and since then has seen her salary upward push from £80,000 to £116,925
A spokesperson for Mr Khan talked about figures from UKHospitality confirmed revenue in London’s hospitality sector had risen by £3billion to £46billion in four years. They claims stay tune and hospitality ‘defied all expectations’ final year.
The Mayor has come below criticism in most up-to-date weeks for what is seen by some as ‘misplaced priorities’ when spending taxpayers money.
Earlier this month travellers slammed Mr Khan for spending £6.3million from the Elevated London Authority funds on renaming and recolouring all six London Overground traces.
The majority of the money went on updating customer files, similar to redesigning and redisplaying maps for the duration of all Tube and London Overground stations, and issuing fresh variations in print and on-line.
There became scorn from some quarters as the names – Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty – were revealed, with Khan himself admitting ‘no longer everyone is going to be jubilant’.
In January a file compiled by the Conservatives accused the Mayor of losing £123million of taxpayers money, a sum disputed by sources interior his have group.
Tories in the London Assembly talked about Khan became losing hundreds and hundreds of kilos on ‘bolt medical doctors, marketing and pointless initiatives’.
This entails £10million on five-day workshops for the Met Police and workers which had a test to ‘resolve the coloration’ of their personalities, nearly £1million on ‘beach parties’ and £500,000 on free promoting for a vaginal moisturising firm.
Transport for London paid £115,275 to DNCO for five months of ‘naming analysis’, MailOnline revealed.
The majority of the £6.3million rebrand price will lunge in the direction of updating indicators and maps for the duration of the transport community and public address announcements will likely be re-recorded from the autumn.
Mr Khan has stood by his determination in the face of criticism and claims it became a ‘shamelessly political’ policy in an election year, hailing the fresh names as reflecting ‘London’s effectively off custom and history’.
Mr Khan and Transport for London selected DNCO for the venture after they named the road that the fresh City Hall in the Royal Docks, Newham.
The ended up with Kamal Chunchie Draw – in honour of the leisurely Sri Lankan minister and anti-racism campaigner – after ‘Londoners’ Square’ and ‘Ship Horns Yard’ were rejected.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan unveils the fresh Overground traces at Highbury and Islington the day earlier to this. His names have caused a destroy up
The fresh Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty traces on the Overground
DNCO bills itself as ‘an agency that we are the usage of that specialises in artistic community engagement’.
Transport for London, the physique slither by Mayor Khan and liable for the community also together with the Tube, says it has given the six routes clear identities to develop it more uncomplicated for passengers.
The Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty traces were revealed by the Mayor of London.
Nevertheless Mr Khan’s Tory mayoral rival Susan Hall talked about: ‘The handiest shock from this day’s announcement is that he hasn’t named one among them the Sadiq line.’ Conservatives MPs talked about Mr Khan became ‘preferrred inserting a brand fresh lick of paint over a creaking transport machine’.
Others highlighted the price, which comes six months after TfL became saved from financial extinguish by the Government with a £3.6billion bailout.
TfL’s crime file revealed there had been a 50 per cent upward push in violence and aggression in opposition to Tube workers, up from 431 incidents between April and September in 2022 to 647 incidents in the similar length in 2023.
The announcement also comes four days earlier than a well-known Overground strike will hit products and services from next Monday. Mr Khan, who is standing for re-election as the capital’s mayor on May perhaps perhaps perhaps just 2, caused outrage final year together with his Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) enlargement – and is now struggling with for a third term together with his most up-to-date choices to freeze shuttle fares and develop Fridays off-peak from next month. Overground traces have all been identified as orange since the community became created in 2007.
Every route will likely be represented on Tube maps as parallel traces in assorted colors. Ms Hall suggested the Mail: ‘A thousand other people had been killed below his mayoralty, and yet Sadiq Khan is handiest attracted to this virtue signalling nonsense.
‘The handiest shock from [the] announcement is that he hasn’t named one among them the Sadiq line.’
Paul Scully, a ancient minister of London, talked about: ‘Londoners preferrred need a mayor who can salvage them from A to B on time, at life like price and in a diploma of comfort, no longer preferrred spraying a discover cloud of virtue signalling at a price of £6million of taxpayers’ money. He’s preferrred inserting a brand fresh lick of paint over a creaking transport machine rather than doing the job Londoners demand.’
London Overground rail traces are being given person names and colors in a well-known overhaul
And Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East, talked about: ‘Another woke belief from a mayor who becomes more ridiculous day-after-day.’
Nevertheless Mr Khan welcomed the naming of traces, together with: ‘We’re honouring and celebrating assorted substances of London’s phenomenal local history and custom.’
The ‘evening tsar’ became also among these targeted in the file, with the Conservatives claiming £70,000 of taxpayers money became spent on a shuffle act known as ‘Duckie Loves Fanny’ which became hosted by Ms Lamé.
Nevertheless the Mayor’s say of labor fired again, branding the file ‘deceptive’ and attacking the government for failing to give ample money to fund the capital’s public products and services.
A spokesperson for the Mayor suggested The Occasions: ‘The Evening Tsar’s work entails standing up for the 1.3 million Londoners who work evenings and nights to ensure better pay and stipulations, retaining hundreds of venues and helping many fresh ones to birth, and developing the groundbreaking Evening Time Mission Zone programme to take the capital’s high streets.
‘Amy is helping to position females’s safety at the heart of bigger than 2,100 organisations, making licensing more uncomplicated to navigate, and supporting boroughs to place hour of darkness suggestions to thought better for all aspects of lifestyles at evening.’
MailOnline has contacted City Hall for further comment.