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.

Ed Miliband promoting a future that works

Today in London tens of thousands of people from across Britain marched together in protest against the austerity being imposed on the country by the Tory led coalition government.


Protestors against the Government's austerity strategy marching up Regent Street towards Hyde Park

The marchers gathered in Hyde Park and amongst the many speakers Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, made the following speech:

"I am here to join with people from all walks of life.
From all parts of our country.
Think about the faces in this crowd.
Young people looking for work.
Like Ashley Parsons from Wolverhampton who you saw on the film.
Let us say we stand with all the young people who want to work in Britain today.

We have nurses determined to fight for the future of our National Health Service.
Let us say we stand with them and all the men and women who serve in our NHS.

Construction workers, like Colin Roach from Greater Manchester, recently laid off.
Let us say we stand with him and people across the whole of British business who want an economy that works for them.

And all the off-duty police officers here today.
Let us say we stand with them as they seek to protect front-line policing and improve communities across Britain.

None of these people think Britain owes them a living.
They are not asking for the earth.
They just have a simple request.
They want a future that works for them.
They believe we do better as One Nation.
Private and public sectors working together.
North and South
Trade unions and British business.

A clear reference to the Andrew Mitchell affair

But they do not see that future under this government.
Instead, they see a government dividing our country.
Andrew Mitchell may finally have resigned.
But the culture of two nations runs right across this government.

They cut taxes for millionaires.
And raise taxes for ordinary families.
They leave young people out of work while the bonuses at the banks carry on.
They even have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who tries to travel first class on a standard class ticket.

It’s one rule for those at the top and another rule for everybody else: everybody like you who plays
 their part and does the right thing.
The trouble with this government is that while they are think they are born to rule, it turns out they are not very good at it.



Off-the-wall demon-stration aimed at
Michael Gove, Education Secretary,

A few weeks ago, I asked:
Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, u-turning, pledge-breaking, make it up as you go along, back of the envelope, miserable shower than this government and this Prime Minister?
What have they done since?
They’ve tried to prove me right.

Just this week:
David Cameron tried to keep his Chief Whip, even though the rest of us could see he had to go.
He made up an Energy policy on Wednesday, without any idea of how he could achieve it.
And he clings to an economic plan that is just not working.

David Cameron: a weak, clueless Prime Minister, who cannot stand up for the interests of this country.
And they are not just incompetent.
Their old answers just don’t work any more.
Trickle-down economics.
Cutting rights at work.
David Cameron calls it the “sink or swim” society.
But you don’t build a successful country with sink or swim.
You do it by building One Nation.

And that is what the next Labour government will do.
Of course, there will still be hard choices.
With borrowing rising not falling this year, I do not promise easy times.
I have said whoever was in government now there would still need to be some cuts.
But this government has shown us cutting too far and too fast, self-defeating austerity, is not the answer.

Pointing out that cuts
are preventing growth

We would make different but fairer choices including on pay and jobs.
So here is what we would do.
Day one, with me as Prime Minister, we start to give all of our young people a stake in the future.
We will tax the bankers’ bonuses and start putting young people back to work again.
We would build 100,000 homes.And get our construction workers working again.
We will end the privatisation experiment in the NHS.
And repeal the Tories’ NHS bill.
And to all the small businesses across Britain, I pledge instead of a country that serves its banks, we would have banks that serve our country.

I tell you one cut I would never make:
I would never cut taxes for millionaires while raising taxes for everybody else.

One Nation is a country where those with the broadest shoulders always bear the greatest burden.
One Nation is a country where we give hope to our young people again.
And One Nation is a country where we defend and improve our great institutions, like the National Health Service.
One Nation.
A country united not divided.
A future that works.
A future that Britain builds together

Hillingdon Labour oppose Day Care cuts

Hillingdon Labour Group have expressed their full support for the parents, carers and service users in their campaign against the closure of Day Care Centres in the borough.  Lawyers representing the families of severely disabled adults in Hillingdon are taking legal action in the High Court to stop the closure of three day care centres.

In a recent statement to the press the Council said

“The proposed changes will enable service users to have more choice and independence through offering care and support tailored to their needs”.

Hillingdon Labour Councillors fundamentally disagree with the Council's closure programme because they recognise that such closures result in less choice for disabled residents by removing the option for the purchase of the centre’s tailored services with the scheme of personal budgets that now fund services for severely disabled people.


A recent report on ITV's London Tonight programme highlighted the problems that the users and their carers will face if the Council's plans for closure go ahead. 

Far from putting residents first this move is driven by the financial savings achieved by the day centre closures, which were identified in the 2010 draft of the 2011 budget.  Labour’s proposed amendments to the 2012 budget were financially neutral and included the retention of Woodside day centre but this was rejected by the Conservatives.

Cllr Peter Curling, Labour Group Leader said “People with serious disabilities now have personal budgets so that they and their carers can choose what services they wish purchase to meet their specific needs.  I therefore find it a bizarre move for the council to stifle this choice by closing the day care centres which already provide the tailored support that many people with severe disabilities and their carers wish to purchase.”

Cllr John Major, Labour Lead on Social Services, Health & Housing, added “The closure of the day cares centres is something that I had feared for some time.  In 2010 I raised a question regarding what was meant when the council put forward a package of savings described as, A modern approach to enable choice to change delivery from a traditional approach, to supporting people to access more community services. When I sought clarification on this it was confirmed that this was connected to the closure of day centres.