• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Kit Malthouse (AM): Mr Mayor, while I applaud my colleagues' endeavours over cautions and looking at Metropolitan Police Service data over the last few years. Would you also agree with me that while it is dangerous to talk in absolute numbers, it is often dangerous to talk in average percentages and that actually there may be characteristics of London which mean that an average percentage sanction detection rate is also deceptive? For instance, Mr Mayor, if you looked at homicide as a crime, I think you would find that the Metropolitan Police Service's sanction detection rate is well up into...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Len Duvall (AM): Mr Mayor, it is even worse than that and I am grateful for Tony Arbour and Conservative colleagues bringing this question to the table. It is even worse than that and I will just go back to Track My Crime. What will happen is, when you go and track your crime, 44% of people are saying there is no crime being investigated because it has been screened out. There is another side of the argument and that is screening out crime being carried out by the Metropolitan Police Service. So, on 5 May, the Sunday Times -...

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Gareth Bacon (AM): Mr Mayor, the consultation is important but there is an argument that has been done in an overkill way. I attended one in Newham. Newham is one of the boroughs where there is actually going to be a fire station closure. Only one member of the public turned up who asked three or four questions, one of which was why we had not laid on refreshments for the general public.

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Fiona Twycross (AM): Will you commit to attending the remaining consultation meetings to hear the concerns of Londoners who are seeing their fire service cut?

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Richard Tracey (AM): Mr Mayor, I have total confidence in the London Fire Commissioner [Ron Dobson] and his officers and indeed it seems to me what they are doing is very much in line with what Sir Ken Knight, a former Commissioner, was suggesting for fire services in the rest of the country. Can I just bring you back to this matter of these public meetings? Apparently they are being held at the insistence of the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green members of LFEPA. We had one in Wandsworth a few weeks ago, which I and various Conservatives attended, and...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Murad Qureshi (AM): Mr Mayor, a fire can quadruple in intensity every two minutes. Murad Qureshi (AM): There are three particular wards where I think this is of significance. In Tachbrook, Vincent Square and Warwick Ward in the south of the City of Westminster. That is not surprising because the proposal is Westminster Fire Station will close, Knightsbridge Fire Station will close and there will be one less engine at Chelsea Fire Station. What explanation can you give to the residents that you are there to protect them at their moment of need? Is the Fire Service adequate for their...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

James Cleverly (AM): Thank you. Mr Mayor, would you share my surprise at the tone of Councillor Shah's questions, using phrases like 'targeting' and that kind of stuff, when the actual figures are that the average response times in the wards that he is claiming are being targeted are five minutes six seconds and these appraisals will increase by just 22 seconds? Yet in the part of London where we are putting additional resources the average response time is currently six minutes 31 seconds. That is one minute 25 seconds slower than the wards which he claims are being targeted...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Jennette Arnold OBE (AM): A couple of points. Mr Mayor, it just seems to me that you have been misled. The LSP5 is not fair and equitable, and I say this when you look at all the wards in my constituency they have all got increases on the arrival of the first appliances and De Beauvoir ward in Hackney, where we had a full assembly hall meeting, they are being asked to hold their breath for an extra three-and-a-half minutes. Can you hold your breath for three-and-a-half minutes whilst you wait for a fire engine? No you cannot. Will you...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Valerie Shawcross CBE (AM): Mr Mayor, we had 150 people in this chamber from Southwick, objecting to the fire station closures. We had 200 people in the Lambeth Town Hall objecting to these fire station closures. We have seen Clapham Tories petitioning against the closure of Clapham Fire Station. Are you happy that the closures and the removals in Lambeth and Southwark will mean that one-third of those boroughs, that is 13 wards of those boroughs, will actually have an attendance time of above and well above the target time? Clapham town is going to be eight minutes attendance time...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Jenny Jones (AM): You have changed your tune on the issue of water cannon, because in the past you said, 'This is a great city of free speech and we do not want to see any arms race with protestors' but now you are saying you approve of using these machines.