A demonstration will take place tomorrow (Thursday) to oppose Boris’ Johnson’s cuts to the London Fire Brigade. The protest will take place at Fire Stations across London at 8.30am. The cuts will take effect at 9am. In total 10 fire stations, 14 fire engines and 552 firefighters will be axed.  

The stations to be axed are Belsize, Bow, Clerkenwell, Downham, Kingsland, Knightsbridge, Silvertown, Southwark, Westminster and Woolwich in addition the second fire engine will be cut from Chingford, Hayes, Leyton, Leystonstone, Peckham and Whitechapel. 

The cuts follow a lengthy campaign to stop the Mayor’s plans which originally included over 18 fire stations and 32 fire engines. The cuts are being made to fund Boris Johnson’s penny a day cut to his share of the council tax for each household. Last year the Mayor was presented with fully costed proposals to maintain the current level of provision but this was ignored. 

Murad Qureshi AM, London wide Assembly Member, said:

“Boris Johnson’s cuts will lead to significantly increased response times to incidents across London. In some areas it will now take nearly two minutes longer for a fire engine to arrive on scene, every second counts. The recent theatre collapse in Soho demonstrates the importance of maintaining current provision, three of the eight appliances that attended the incident will be cut.” 

“Boris has not listened to local residents in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea who are losing their local station and is forcing these cuts through. In response to his consultation 94% of Londoners said they do not support his plans. Today’s cuts are a grim new year’s present; Boris should be thoroughly ashamed of himself.” 

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Notes

     The LFB incident log (see http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/LatestIncidentsContainer_1912201320.asp#.UrQtpfRdWul) lists the following fire engines as attending the theatre collapse in Soho: Kensington, Soho, Westminster, Dowgate, Southwark, Knightsbridge, Battersea, Lambeth, and Euston stations. Of those Westminster, Southwark and Knightsbridge are due to close under the Mayor’s cuts.