1510 GMT London Wednesday 8 October 2008 KHOODEELAAR! updating the constitutional law notice on Boris Johnson: We WILL take you to court to compel you to carry out independent study into the transport needs of London.
[To be continued]
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Boris Johnson announces plans for crime crackdown on London’s buses
Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities , Local Government
Wednesday 8th October 2008 – 3:03pm
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Boris Johnson announces plans for crime crackdown on London’s buses
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced new plans to help cut crime on buses by extending transport policing teams to 30 locations across the capital.
The move follows the introduction on his election in May of three 12-week pilot schemes in West Croydon, Wood Green and Canning Town to tackle bus-related crime affecting passengers.
Launching the roll out today at Bexleyheath Police Station in the London Borough of Bexley, Mr Johnson said: “One of the things that came up time and time again over the campaign, and indeed I’ve experienced it myself, is the question of people feeling safe on buses and public transport generally.
“I think they have every reason to feel increasingly safer, but there is a problem and it needs to be dealt with. That’s why we banned alcohol on the Tube, buses and railways.
“It has proved self-enforcing in the way we said it was going to be, and I’m very pleased about that.”
An additional 440 uniformed officers will help establish the new hub teams, with each one made up of one sergeant, one police constable and seven PCSOs.
The hub teams will be rolled out in their 27 extra locations throughout the capital’s 32 boroughs from January to June next year.
The £11.3 million cost of the initiative is being primarily financed by Transport for London with the Metropolitan Police Service.
Mr Johnson added: “One of the key things we said we were going to do is to remove money from Transport for London’s publicity budget in favour of more policing on the buses.”
Showing a renewed faith in official statistics, Mr Johnson said that since the three trial teams began, robberies within those areas had reduced by 37.8%, with overall crime going down by 16% and violent crime by 5.6%.
He said: “I do not believe that there is a plague of out-of-control kids all the way across London who are turning the lives of every single passenger into a nightmare. There is a minority that cause trouble and that minority needs to be effectively deterred.”
Mr Johnson also called on the Government not to turn its back on investing in London’s transport system, including Crossrail, despite the current economic turbulence.
He said: “We are allegedly teetering on the brink of a recession. I’m not certain that things are necessarily going to be as bad as all that, but one thing is for certain, if we want to damage the long term economic prospects of this city and damage our long term ability to recover, then the worst thing we could possibly do is fail to invest now in the transport infrastructure that we need.
He added: “It would be absolutely fatal now not to go ahead with those investments and I urge the Government to bear that in mind.”
Mr Johnson refused to be drawn on naming his preferred successor to Sir Ian Blair as the next Metropolitan Police Commissioner, simply stating: “A consultation process is under way, the normal procedures will be followed. C’est tout, that’s all I can say.”
After his press conference, Mr Johnson greeted shoppers in Bexleyheath town centre as he posed for photographs with police officers on a bus.
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