• 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.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Tony Arbour (AM): A simple way of dealing with the problem, Mr Mayor, would be that you impose a condition, and indeed local boroughs imposed a condition which said, that the 'Development hereby approved shall be completed by ...' Currently planning consents say, 'Development must be commenced by ...'. You will be able to deal with the problem of land banking if the simple condition, as I have expressed, were to be put in. You may like to think that perhaps that could go into the next London Government Act, but clearly that would deal with the problem at a...

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

Kit Malthouse (AM): Mr Mayor, do you think there may be a case to be made that all the impositions that are now being placed on developers from the Social Housing Requirement Section 106, stamp duty, corporation tax, all the rest of it, that this is all adding up to quite a large bill that may well be chocking off development in London rather than easing it?

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

Fiona Twycross (AM): Thank you. Is London now simply unaffordable?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 22 May 2013

Andrew Boff (AM): Mr Mayor, do you think the people who are paying the real bedroom tax are the 391,000 children who are growing up in overcrowded accommodation in London?

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

Fiona Twycross (AM): Thank you. Are you concerned about the issues created by the lack of suitable property available for the people affected by the bedroom tax to downsize to?