• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

If you are going to consult people, what would stop you closing a police station that was earmarked for closure?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

The Police and Justice Bill - or Act as it very nearly is - will require every local authority to set up a Community Safety Scrutiny Committee which again will add to the complexities of the local arrangements we are discussing. How do you envisage that fitting in with the arrangements? How will it relate to the police consultative groups for instance?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

I wholly agree that this is best served to get sorted out pragmatically and at borough level, but can I suggest that it might be helpful, if it is not already happening, for the MPA to take the lead in discussion with what used to be the ALG, London Councils, as I think it is now, to try and start some thinking about how to rationalise what is becoming an increasingly complex consultative structure with often the same people going to lots of meetings saying exactly the same thing.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Picking up on Valerie's (Shawcross) point, I certainly agree a borough- by-borough list would be extremely useful. In terms of the Ward panels it does seem to be extremely patchy, even within boroughs, from one Ward to the next. Whilst I agree a one size fits all approach of engagement is not going to be right across London, there do need to be some sort of minimum standards in terms of engagement and democratic structures and input from local councillors and so on, that does not seem to be happening. So will you be working with the boroughs to actually...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

I think it would be useful if you could carry out the review, as Val (Shawcross) suggests, and look at what is happening in each borough, and then, based on that information, as you say, come up with some minimum standards for engagement, I think that would be extremely useful.

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Thank you, Chair. I think you have put your finger on it when you say partly a problem of transition. My experience has been that the public and the elected representatives of the public are not yet quite clear how the new system should be working, and there is perhaps some hanging on to old consultative contact structures that could really be burned back in order to save police time, because there is some concern about use of police time in the evenings if everybody was clear about how they could access the new consultative and dialogue framework. I would...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

What I would like to see, and I want to know if you will be doing this, is publishing at every borough level what the arrangements are within that borough, so people know how to access the system and local councillors address the right level of consultative structure.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Obviously you will be talking to the new owners about their cooperation as security is a very sensitive issue in terms of aviation. My other question, which I think is a very important one for Londoners, is has there ever been an occasion because of the lack of reimbursement where the police service has taken a decision to provide fewer police to support airport security operations than it otherwise would have done?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

London City Airport; roughly we spend £7 million on policing - I think this is public information - and we are hoping to recover £5 million of that £7 million from them. That is not unreasonable.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 November 2006

Thank you for that answer. I freely admit this is a semi-planted question. The question is not planted but I received a briefing from the police several months ago precisely as part of the strategy which I think the Authority supports of seeking to reclaim funding for policing at London City Airport, and I quite strongly support that, it is a very profitable enterprise. As I understand it the figures are that currently policing at Heathrow costs roughly £48 million a year, of which we recover £26 million, and we want to increase that to £35 million. From the public...