Andrew Dismore

My report from City Hall

No.7: 20th December 2012 to 7th February 2013

(With ‘Stop Press’, 12th February 2013)

Introduction

Firstly, may I wish you a rather belated Happy New Year?

This month, most of the time seems to have been spent on the police and fire brigade cuts, as well as the fare rises the Mayor has imposed on Transport for London. In part, these cuts and fare rises are a contribution towards his proposed Council Tax cut of 1.2%- which equates to a massive 1p a day for the average Band D Council Tax payer. I think most Londoners would prefer to forgo such a tiny tax cut and use the money to maintain the emergency services, though Mayor Boris Johnson seems determined to go ahead, come what may.

I’ve also been pretty busy with the HS2 campaign and Holocaust Memorial Day.

Can I apologise, too, for the lack of images and hyperlinks this month, due to a major IT problem which has delayed this report. If you want to access any of the video recordings of the Assembly’s meetings, you can do so at this address: http://www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/the-london-assembly/webcasts

Fire cuts

As a member of the Fire Authority (LFEPA), I have been campaigning against the plans to close 12 fire stations, reduce the fleet by 18 fire engines, and lose over 500 front line fire-fighter posts.

Locally, the good news is that Mill Hill Fire Station was not in the final closure list, so I am grateful to all those who backed my campaign to save it, at least for now, but long term the threat remains, as the Mayor’s cuts will requires further drastic action. The bad news is that Belsize Fire Station is now proposed for closure. The original idea of an extra fire engine at Euston has been dropped, too. Hendon is proposed to get back its second fire engine, which was removed a few years ago.

The consequences for Camden are serious: actual attendance times on average across the borough will increase by 45 seconds- this may not sound a lot, but a fire quadruples in intensity in just 2 minutes so a delay of that length really counts.

At the Fire Authority meeting Labour LFEPA members voted down these cuts in the draft Fire Plan (LSP 5) with the support of the Lib Dems and Green members. In doing so, we left in the plan the redeployed engines, such as at Hendon, and put forward suggestions as to how the budget could be bridged for next year. We also suggested that the consultation on the rest of the draft Fire Plan (LSP 5) should be an effective one, with detailed proposals for information and meetings to inform the public.

Mayor Johnson indicated immediately he intended to overrule LFEPA’s decision, against his damaging cuts. This was debated at Mayor’s Question Time, nine days later as he still had not issued his directive. He did so immediately after the session, no doubt so we could not question him on the details. I challenged him twice on this at MQT, over the delay and his intention to reimpose the fire cuts. I had also challenged him in the Budget Committee, when he was not able to give details of how much the closures would actually save.

The Fire Commissioner, in his letter to the Mayor, has also finally confirmed that the cuts proposals are largely budget driven.

His directive to LFEPA not only puts back the cuts, but also cancels the proposals we put forward for a genuine consultation. Under his plans, there will be no open meetings at all, for the public to be informed in the worst affected areas, like Camden.

Labour LFEPA members have no called for an emergency meeting of the Fire Authority to consider our next step, in our efforts to fight off these dangerous cuts.

Last but by no means least, I was again libelled by the Conservatives over the fire cuts, (that’s twice in three months!) and the Conservative Group leader on the Assembly, Andrew Boff AM  was forced to apologise to me publicly.

Police cuts

Detailed briefings of the impact of these cuts are on my website for both Barnet and Camden. At www.andrewdismore.org.uk

Since my last report, the so called “consultation” has begun, with theoretically public (but very badly publicised) meetings in both Boroughs, led by the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Stephen Greenhalgh. He graciously allowed just an hour of his time to residents in each Borough to consider police numbers, station front desk closures and their alternative, and the reorganisation that will mean an end to the Safer Neighbourhood Teams. After a quarter of the time was taken up in the introduction, only a handful of residents contributed- and they were only allowed to ask questions, not make a substantive response.

The Labour councillors had previously booked a room at Barnet Town Hall to follow immediately on after, so the discussion could continue, but the Conservative controlled Council cancelled the booking at the last minute, which would prevent proper scrutiny of the proposals. Nevertheless we continued the discussion anyway after the Deputy Mayor left. To view a video of this visit the Barnet Bugle blog at www.barnetbugle.com. I am pleased to say there was no such difficulty at Camden, where we held a very useful premeeting for local residents to discuss the plans before the consultation event.

Since I last wrote, there have been some changes and new arguments arising, especially concerning station closures.

At the Assembly Budget Committee, I challenged the Mayor over the costs and savings. He was unable to give any indication whatsoever either of how much was going to be saved by the front counter closures, nor how much the alternative contact points were going to cost!

In Barnet, the proposal to close Golders Green was changed to one of closure of Barnet Police Station counter, (with Golders Green going onto short time opening only) apparently as the result of political interference overruling the wishes of the Borough Commander. I challenged the Mayor and the Police Commissioner about this at Assembly Plenary.

In Camden, the arguments over the closures are even more intense, with the proposals not standing up to scrutiny. For example, the 24/7 station is to be Holborn (which mainly serves the day time working population and comparatively  few Camden residents), whist the short daytime hours one is to be Kentish Town. There can be no cost implications either way, as to which is shorter hours and which full time. For Camden residents it makes far more sense for the arrangement to be the other way round, if there are to be closures at all, which don’t seem justifiable on costs grounds.

The proposed alternative of “contact points” is also turning into a shambles. Although the Mayor promised that no station front counter would close until equivalent alternative arrangements are in place, this is clearly not going to happen. The idea is for the police to have stalls of about 4 hours per week in public places. Although the consultation document says these are for reporting crime and anti social behaviour, Mr Greenhalgh appears to have changed his mind already, saying at public meetings that is not what they are for after all. It is hard to see what use they will be, beyond crime prevention advice. Additional new concerns emerge all the time, too: for example, what about suspects on bail to report weekly to a police station? If they are in Barnet with no local station to go to, to get to Colindale is well over an hour, needing a tube and 2 buses, cost about £5 each way £10 in total. Similar problems would arise for anyone in Camden, due to report at Holborn from the north west of the Borough. Inevitably the many more bail defaulters will tie up police and court time, as they are arrested and brought before the magistrates for breach of bail conditions.

After the “coffee shop” contact point proposal was righty derided, the suggestion now is that they will be accommodated in post offices: but the Post Office have confirmed that they have only had preliminary discussions about just one pilot across the whole of London. Surly a better idea would be to use exciting station counters, such as at Hampstead?

The Safer Neighbourhood Teams as we have come to know them will be no more: each ward will have just one dedicated PC and one PCSO, once the cuts go through.

It is important that you have your say, and you can find the consultation questions on line but beware: they are clearly rigged questions to suit the Mayor’s agenda. To contribute visit http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=67232epffs