News from London Assembly Labour

Labour vote to block Boris’s police cuts

Labour on the London Assembly will today vote against Boris Johnson’s plans to axe Met police officers.

The London Assembly will vote on Boris Johnson’s final £14 billion budget at City Hall tomorrow. The Mayor proposes to cut 455 police officers by the end of his first term in office.

Labour have proposed reversing the Mayor’s plans to cut police officers by reducing the Met’s publicity budget. In his manifesto Boris Johnson promised to reduce the Met’s press staff from 73 to 50 but has actually increased it to 74.

John Biggs, Labour’s budget spokesman and deputy leader on the Assembly, said the Mayor’s budget and his decision to resign the MPA Chair showed a lack of commitment to policing in London.

John Biggs said: “Boris was elected on a manifesto of leading and protecting the police but he is planning to cut almost 500 officers and is slashing their funding. These are real, painful cuts for boroughs to absorb and beg the question whether community policing in London is safe in the hands of the Tories. A reduction in the Met’s publicity budget would be enough to reverse the cuts this year.

“If he wants to go on freezing the council tax and saving Londoners a few pence off their bills he should come clean and admit there will be consequences for services – one of those being cuts to police officers.”

Labour have also proposed reversing Boris Johnson’s bus fare rises. This would be partly funded by retaining the western extension of the congesiton charge and cutting the bonuses of TfL managers.

TfL figures show that the income they stand to lose over the next three years from scrapping the western extension of the congestion charge is broadly in line with the amount being raised from January’s bus fare rises. Labour would retain the western extension to subsidise a fare freeze for bus users.

Labour also propose to reverse Boris Johnson’s decision to raise some outer London Tube fares by 18% (Labour would keep an off-peak zone 2-6 Tube fare at £1.10).

Other proposals in Labour’s alternative budget include:

* Reversing Boris Johnson’s police cuts – this year and in future years
* Additional funding for rape crisis centres by cutting the Mayor’s press office (£200k)
* Investing in skills and employability training during the economic downturn by reviewing the LDA’s priorities
* Funding the UpRise festival (as a replacement for Rise, previously Europe’s biggest anti-racism festival) by axing Boris Johnson’s USA day
* Restoring London’s Older People’s Resource Centre (axed by the Mayor to save £174k)
* Reversing Boris Johnson’s road traffic safety cuts
* Reversing changes to the Met’s human trafficking unit

Labour’s budget spokesman and deputy leader on the London Assembly, John Biggs, concluded: “Being Mayor is about choices and Boris has spent his time making the wrong ones. He has hiked up bus fares to pay for cutting the congestion charge zone and he has stood up for bankers instead of the hardworking majority of Londoners who use public transport.

“Londoners shouldn’t be paying for the Mayor’s poor decisions through increased fares and fewer police. And while a freeze in the Mayor’s share of council tax may be welcome, its impact is more than wiped out by massive fare hikes. The reality is Boris Johnson is a pay more, get less Mayor who is more concerned with protecting his friends in the City than ordinary hardworking Londoners.”

Presenting their alternative to Boris Johnson’s budget proposals, Labour have revealed that the extra revenue raised from freezing fares, supporting congestion charging and scaling back managers’ bonuses would pay for a reversal of January’s massive bus fare rises. To fund a reversal of Boris Johnson’s bus fare hike, Labour propose:

- Retaining the western extenstion of the congestion charge
(raising £15m this year and almost £70m in subsequent years)

- Scaling back the 1,000 highest paid TfL managers’ bonuses
(saving £5m)

- Reducing TfL’s reserves
(raising £6m)

- Transferring some financial responsibility for Safer Transport Teams to the Met (an accounting change to better balance resources. This would NOT affect the STTs)
(saving £10m)

- Increased bus ridership from fares reversal
(raising £27m)

- Deferring phase two of cycle super highways scheme to allow review of phase one
(saving £15m)

Other news from London Assembly Labour

• Boris misleads Londoners about ticket office closures - 17 March 2010
• Mayor still refuses to act against banned councillor - 5 March 2010
• Banned councillor: London Labour leader calls on Mayor to act - 25 February 2010