Mayor admits he did not know of extent of fire station closures- but orders cuts anyway
At today’s London Assembly budget Mayor’s Question Time meeting , Labour Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore AM challenged Mayor Johnson over his decision to order the cut of 13 fire engines, even though this is not needed to balance the fire authority’s budget. Video: https://vimeo.com/156265694
Mr Dismore asked the Mayor:
‘You have indicated you intend to direct LFEPA to cut 13 fire engines. Were you aware that on 6th February, 9 fire stations were out of action for the entire shift, and that 5 more pumps were off the run for over 2 hours due to staff shortages? Of those 9 stations , 3 of them are where you have taken one of their 2 engines away- if you hadn’t, those station would have remained operational.
‘This isn’t the first time recently we have had large numbers of stations off the run, either, is it? For example on 26th October, the day of the fatal fire in Camden, 9 stations were also off the run for the entire shift, including 1 where the pump was one of the 13 removed and 2 more stations for part of the shift.
‘5 of the 13 stations losing an engine aren’t even on your optimum list of fire stations to lose a pump, either.’
After Mr Dismore repeated the question a number of times due to the Mayor’s avoidance of it, the Mayor finally admitted he had not known that so many stations had been ‘off the run’, but he intended to force the cuts through anyway.
After question time Mr Dismore said:
‘It is clear that the Mayor has no interest in the detail of the fire brigade’s operations, but he wants to impose these damaging cuts anyway. He is putting up two fingers to the public consultation, which found 70% of the public did not want to lose the 13 fire engines, but would accept Labour’s alternative way of balancing the fire authority budget. When this out of touch Mayor finally goes in a few weeks’ time, it will be good riddance for the people of London.’
