Fire cuts in London and consultati​on - Hillingdon meeting this Tuesday

A public meeting on the Mayor's propsals to get rid of 12 fire stations, 18 fire engines and 520 fire fighters across the capital, will be held in Hillingdon at 7pm, Tuesday 2 April,  at Middlesex Suite, Hillingdon Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1UW

The Labour London Assembly Members of the London  Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) voted against Mayor Johnson’s proposals.

Despite the Fire Authority voting against the cuts, as they will risk the lives and properties of Londoners, Mayor Boris Johnson issued a directive to overrule this vote and proceed to consultation on his plans. This consultation is running from 4 March until 28 May.

The Mayor tried to stop the Fire Authority consulting the public through public meetings for each Borough, but the Authority are going ahead with meetings despite his wishes and twenty-four public meetings are being held in different London boroughs.

The implications of the Mayor’s proposals are very serious – it will take longer for a fire engine to reach 4.7 million Londoners when they need one. Every second counts in a fire as a domestic fire can quadruple in intensity every 2 minutes.

London’s fire chief has said the cuts are driven by financial considerations but we think the safety and security of Londoners should come first. Boris Johnson wants to cut the council tax by the equivalent of just 1p per day for a property in Band D. Labour’s GLA members think most Londoners would prefer him to put the penny towards the fire brigade instead.

For more information on how the cuts will affect you click here.

To have you say on the consultation click here.

Affordable homes built by Boris drop by more than half

As reported by the BBC yesterday only 7,500 affordable homes will be completed in London during 2012 despite Tory Mayor Boris Johnson’s election pledge to build 55,000 over the next 4 years, which is an average 13,750 per annum.

It compares with 16,000 completed last year ahead of the election, when Boris Johnson claimed he had delivered record housing.

And this ignores that this Tory led Government has changed the official definition ‘affordable’ as between 60% and 80% of market rent , which reduces the public investment required but is actually unaffordable to many households on low incomes.

Changes to the mayor's housing strategy means there will no new social (council) housing schemes in London.