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Saturday 12 January 2013

Greens accuse Boris of putting a tax cut before safety

London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has received a report outlining cuts to fire stations, budgets and fire appliances. The proposals include closing 12 fire stations, redundancy for 400 fire fighters and 100 civilian staff.

LFEPA votes on the proposals on the 21st January. Labour the Greens & the Liberal Democrats oppose the proposals but under the rules the Mayor can force the changes through despite being in a minority.

The London Fire Brigade's budget has been cut by the Mayor and the coalition government by £45 million over the next two years. Even after the 12 stations, 18 fire appliances and 400 firefighters have been cut the Mayor and LFEPA will still have to find over £5 million of cuts. On average it costs £1.4 million to run a one fire engine station.

Green GLA member Darren Johnson said: “The public are desperately worried about these closures. Rather than cutting council tax the mayor should be providing the funding to keep these fire stations open. The closures are completely unnecessary but the mayor seems more interested in council tax cuts than London's safety
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Boris Johnson is planning a cut to council tax worth seven pence per week to the average B and D resident. We estimate the lost income to City Hall over the next two years from cutting council tax in that way will cost £46m if compared to the freeze in council tax which has been put forward for a third year by the coalition government.