• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

I didn't think doing an imitation of Houdini was a qualification for being Chairman of the Police Authority. It's no good trying to wriggle out of the responsibility, Lord Harris. Isn't the reality that the figures clearly demonstrated that the workload upon officers in Bexley was amongst the highest in London? Why is it then that a number of boroughs with lower workloads actually have higher increases in the number of officers? Doesn't it strike you that if there's going to be any faith in this new system there has to be transparency and a system which does not clearly...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

Perhaps you might have been on stronger ground there had it not been for the way in which it's very apparent that the MPA has utterly ignored 37,000 people in Bexley who signed a petition seeking a decent increase in resources. The MPA, I gather, has effectively put two fingers up by giving them five extra officers. That's exactly the sort of behaviour that places Borough Commanders in an impossible position, and I have sympathy for Borough Commanders who are caught by that. But don't you think it's a bit rich for you to be criticising anybody in Bexley when...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

We're talking about local services for local people and there can be no greater local service quite frankly from the people's point of view, than the opening of front counters that are accessible to local people and to the public. As you know, in our borough several have closed and what I want to know is, will you take steps to ensure that access to a police front counter, whether it's a pod in the high street or cops in shops, even if some of those are cross party ideas, will you take steps to ensure that it's comprehensive across...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

I think all of us want to see the system of Borough Commanders work and I wonder if you would agree in that context that it is important to recognise that there's an underlying principle here. Would you accept that, to a degree, the burden of paying for policing in London is gradually shifting towards council taxpayers and that therefore it is particularly important that people in each borough are able to be satisfied, not only that they get the sort of policing that they feel that they want, but also that the priorities adopted in that borough reflect their...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

I'm glad to learn of those two initiatives. I was aware of the first one, but not the second. I think that is good news. The concern, I think, that many people have is that to achieve the sort of partnership that we all want to have at borough level, it's important that the various groups that you've referred to have sufficient information to be able to question the Borough Commanders in a constructive way. Are you perhaps thinking of making sure there is some guidance amongst Borough Commanders to make sure that, for example, each of the community partnerships...

• Question by: Louise Bloom
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

You touched on your visits around the boroughs, Toby. Perhaps you could tell us how many borough visits you've now actually completed and how do you intend to both use and share this knowledge that you've gained on your visits round the boroughs with both us and perhaps even, dare I say, the wider public?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

At the MPA Sir John Stevens did actually say he was going to put a halt to the closure of police stations.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

The answer was not deep and thorough, you're just dodging it, in as much as you are saying local people are deciding for themselves in partnership with the police. So the assurance is that it will be on the agenda, because you then go on to say it'll be down to Borough Commanders to make those decisions as to how best to deploy their resources and you say it is an affection for the building or some other sort of condescending thing. What local people want is access to the police when they're in trouble, they don't have to get...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 December 2001

I won't do it in French, although I am tempted to, and I approach it with the observation that in the village where I have a house in France, I'm always struck by the very good relationships that there are there between the local police officers and their community - just so that nobody tars everybody with one particular brush. What I am interested in is this. That sets out a factual position. Are you satisfied that this actually works in practice and that Borough Commanders are perceived as being genuinely responsive to the concerns of the communities in each...

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 23 May 2001

Thank you for that. I only wish that your strategies exemplified that in action, because most of them are concentrated on the centre and the east; most of them ignore the outer London boroughs, particularly the west London boroughs. At the west London conference which you recently attended, you made it clear that, on the plans for the new home for the Greater London Assembly, the one mistake you noticed was in your own office, where your desk was facing the wrong way. You asked that the desk be turned round, so that you were facing east London. You were...