Biggs -v- Boris on 999

London Assembly Member John Biggs made a splash at the GLA meeting on 31st October when he took on London Mayor Boris Johnson over threats to East London’s emergency services.

Among the services which Biggs claimed were under threat are:
•fire stations at Bow, Silvertown and Whitechapel;
•Dagenham’s police station
•and St George’s A&E unit.

Biggs explained his tough talk comes because across London, cuts to blue-light services are putting Londoners’ lives at risk.
•The London Fire Brigade is facing steep cuts due to the Government cutting the fire budget by 25% – £65 million in total.
•The London Ambulance Service will lose £53million (19%) of it’s budget by 2015/16, resulting in 890 job cuts, of which 560 will be frontline staff.
•The Metropolitan Police is being cut by 12% and has already lost 1,444 police officers and 1,960 Police Community Safety Officers (PCSOs) in the past two years.
•A&Es will each be forced to cater for an extra 120,000 residents, on average. In 2010 there were 32 A&E departments in London, but only 24 would remain under current cost-cutting plans.

Biggs said: “I am concerned about what’s happening to our frontline services. When we do complain about what’s happening to the NHS, our fire and police services, it’s because we care what happens to these frontline services, which have an impact on people’s lives.
“We’re seeing the unacceptable and dangerous face of deep cuts. The Mayor has tried to duck and dive when questioned directly about cuts to the NHS but he has direct responsibility for the fire and police services so has to take responsibility for the closure of fire and police stations and the loss of police officers on his watch. The cuts are going too far and too fast and will inevitably endanger families and communities across the capital.”

Earlier this week, the Government announced that it was spending £353 on developing submarines to carry nuclear weapons (though the decision on whether Britain will retain Trident, the nuclear missile the submarines carry, will officially not be taken till 2016).  If you weigh up the risk of a nuclear attack on the UK against the risk of being injured, being a victim of crime or seeing a fire in East London, you really have to wonder whether the Government has its priorities right.