• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Mr Mayor, I just want to thank you and Chairman Cleverly and the Fire Commissioner for the proposed new purpose-built fire station that is planned for Mitcham in my constituency. The planning permission has just been granted by the Labour-controlled Merton Council.

• Question by: Navin Shah
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Navin Shah (AM): Mr Mayor, good morning. How many fire stations will be closing and fire engines lost to meet the remaining deficit of £50 million over the next two years.

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Certainly. Mr Mayor, could you join me in reassuring Mr Biggs that fire engines do not respect borough boundaries and if there is an emergency callout that happens to be in a borough that neighbours Tower Hamlets, the fire appliances closest will go there quickest? Could you further reassure Mr Biggs that the current and future target first appliance time is six minutes and the second appliance time is eight minutes, and in none of the options that have been modelled - rather than the proposals that are being talked about here - do any of Tower Hamlets' response times...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Londoners are desperately worried about these fire station closures. Would you be prepared to revise your budget settlement for LFEPA to avoid a worsening of response times?

• Question by: Gareth Bacon MP
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Like Mr Dismore I have also read the papers that are going to the fire authority tomorrow and one of the important sections which he seems to have skated over - it is in bold so he should have seen it - states, 'The modelling work is not complete and should not be taken as representing final proposals. In particular the sensitivity analysis that officers routinely undertake to test the robustness of particular proposals has not yet been fully completed and may produce further important data.' Do you think it is a shame that Mr Dismore is being as alarmist...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Good morning. While we are on the question of rough sleeping can I just ask you a question that I asked in June about the money the Government gave you. It gave you a budget for rough sleeping of £33.8 million. £5.3 million of that was missing from your budget last year. The non-government organisations (NGOs) and the charities responsible for services to rough sleepers still do not know whether they will get this money. Can I ask you where is that money?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

In light of this discussion on co-location of the emergency services will you please revisit the proposal to have a single blue light museum? I am very conscious that at a time of economies forced on us by the wastefulness of the previous Government, museums and things of that sort are likely to be overlooked. Clearly there is going to be an opportunity with the vacating of premises to improve the services for us to be able to have a blue light museum.

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Mr Mayor, those of us who are associated with the Wandle Valley Park do believe that this is a very unfair anachronism, this levy, which has been in place, first of all, under the Greater London Council from 1966 and then from 1986 it was passed to the London boroughs. Each of the 32 London boroughs plus the City are paying anything between £200,000 and £400,000 a year to keep the Lee Valley Park subsidised, in effect. The Park Authority could simply charge its visitors £2.50 a head, we calculate, and that would replace the £8.7 million which the boroughs...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Would you also though in considering your views about this bear in mind, Mr Mayor, that there are particular crime types that take place over a number of years that require the retention of DNA over that period. For example, Kirk Reid was apprehended six years after his first offence and of course the criminal who became known as the Night Stalker some 20 years after his first offence when DNA samples were taken. Therefore we have to bear in mind that particularly where sexual offences are concerned these linked series which are often hard to detect can take some...

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 21 November 2012

Referring to your earlier comments, is that the same if I say something very nice about someone on the other side? So, picking up on the earlier comments of Valerie [Shawcross], I know she feels very passionate about Croydon and although I know our Conservative candidate will win next Thursday, I know Valerie would have made a fantastic MP in Croydon North. Jennette Arnold OBE (Chair): Can I have a question from you Steve O'Connell? Steve O'Connell (AM): I was not going to mention it but thank you very much for your visit to London Road and the businesses there...