• Question by: Louise Bloom
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Following up from several things that have been raised really and, as you may recall, smoke alarms are an issue very dear to my heart: One thing that concerns me around the education work is doing the follow-ups. I can't remember which council it is, but I recall that one of the councils in South Wales fitted smoke alarms in all their social housing, went back a year later and 80% of them didn't have the batteries in. Croydon are obviously to be commended for what they're doing but will that type of follow-up work be happening? The other thing...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

It does beg a supplementary, doesn't it? Can you describe one or two of the bear traps that he's pushed you into?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

I have two little tiny questions. I'll roll them together. The first is, following from Meg's point about the FBU, do you find that the Mayor of London is a help or a hindrance in your management of relations with the trade union, given the problems that perhaps there have been, particularly in relation to the rail unions? And the second part, while you're thinking of a good answer to that first part, is the relationship between fire vulnerability and poverty and whether you're working on any particular regeneration initiatives in London, where particularly vulnerable communities would benefit from the...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

As the chairman of a London-wide body, I'm sure you think it right that you should travel around London to listen to the concerns of local residents. I wonder if you can tell us why, when the residents of Havering invited you to visit the borough to listen to concerns about lack of fire cover in Hornchurch, you turned them down?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

What about my point about the Fire Brigade Union and negotiations with them on these issues?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

It recently came to my notice that in my constituency there was an event involving a frozen pond and I wondered if you could outline how well prepared you see the fire services are to deal with non-fire emergencies, given that I know that it's a non-statutory responsibility?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

I'm sure we all welcome that proactive involvement. I would be interested in learning, perhaps on your next visit, whether or not the resource indications of the number of partnership meetings that your Borough Commanders now have to attend is impacting on everything else. But could I move on? You talked about schools briefly and we've all read the shocking figures that 60% of fires in London are caused by arson and I would be interested to know what work you're doing with other local agencies to prevent this?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

What about the resource implications of this? It's all very well having legislation. You're already doing a lot of the work. Is the Government really going to give more power to the Fire Authority, where it might see a demand also then for more resources to do some of the things that we would all agree need to be done, but need to be paid for from somewhere?

• Question by: Louise Bloom
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001

Thank you for that very detailed answer. I think maybe we will have to agree to disagree on the London Plan. I know it's something that Assembly members generally are very concerned about. You touched on the SDS. How do you see the two strategies - the Economic Development Strategy and the SDS then - dove-tailing in together as we go through the draft? Perhaps you could specifically tell us what work is actually being done on those to make sure they do dove-tail in together? One problem the Assembly has been very concerned about is that strategies just don't...

• Question by: Louise Bloom
• Meeting date: 10 October 2001