Further Tory cuts to public services could see the lives of Londoners, including Croydon residents, put at risk with the capital served by 13 fewer fire engines, if a proposal from London Mayor Boris Johnson is passed at a City Hall meeting this morning.
The proposals include taking a fire engine based at Norbury fire station permanently out of service.
Crews at Norbury fire station, where one fire engine has been earmarked to be taken out of service in the latest round of cuts
If agreed, it will bring to 27 the number of fire engines cut from service in London under the Conservative Mayor in just two years.
A resources committee meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has the cost-cutting move on the agenda.
The proposals are part of the Fire Brigade’s plans to deal with the £13.2million cut from its budget by Johnson.
The full budget report can be read here; the latest Boris cuts can be found on page 7.
Alternative proposals have been put forward by Andrew Dismore, a Labour London Assembly Member, which would see a range of back office efficiencies to meet the budget gap.
It is less than two years since the Tory Mayor forced through the closure of 10 London fire stations and axed 14 fire engines. Inevitably, the fire brigade’s response times to emergencies across the capital got longer.
“When the Mayor axed 14 fire engines and closed 10 London fire stations across the capital he promised then that there would be no more front-line cuts,” Dismore said. “The predictable result has been that response times have gone up and lives have been lost. Yet now he is at it again.
“There is little doubt that his plans to axe another 13 fire engines would have dire consequences for Londoners and risk the safety of the capital and the people that live here.
“It’s literally a scorched earth policy, tying the hands of the future Mayor and jeopardising the safety of Londoners – this is what Boris Johnson’s austerity means.”
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First: In the North of the Borough of Croydon we have lost all of our Police Stations except one.
Second: In the North of the Borough of Croydon we are now going to lose a fire engine from Norbury Fire Station which will result in longer response times to accidents which will result in more deaths.
I hope and pray that there will be no repeat of the Croydon Riots, after which the Prime Minister said there would be no further cuts in police numbers.
We all want to feel safe in our homes and outside when we go about our businesses, but I feel these cuts are a false economy and that you cannot put a price on some ones’ life.
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