Reevesey's recommended reading

Sunday 14 February 2010

Labour's Val Shawcross on London fire station closures - hypocricy or memory loss?

Over on Labour Matters London Assembly Member Val Shawcross is shouting about possible fire station closures across London.
Boris Johnson’s appointee to run the fire authority, Tory Assembly Member Brian Coleman, today refused to rule out any fire station closures.

Labour’s Val Shawcross AM, said: “The Chair of the fire authority ought to be able to reassure Londoners that there is no question-mark over the future of any of our fire stations and the fact that he refused to do so is surprising and a cause for real concern. We need a cast-iron guarantee from Brian Coleman and the mayor that fire stations, including in outer-London, are safe.
So, Labour's Val Shawcross is suddenly interested in stopping Cameron's Conservative Mayor and his cronies closing London's fire stations.

However, she wasn't quite so vocal back in 2005, when she herself was chair of the same London Fire Authority, and closed Manchester Square Station in Westminster and also redeployed 10 fire appliances from central London, including Dockhead fire station, to outer boroughs in London.

I did a lot of research for Simon Hughes MP, I was his Constituency Organiser at the time and the area served by Dockhead fire station had the highest volume of hoax calls in any London Borough and we questioned Val Shawcross why she was removing one of the fire engines given this research, she couldn't answer and never did bother to either.
We ran a massive campaign with full support from London Firemen and women, and many of the people living around Dockhead fire station.  We held a public meeting in the February 2005 to stop the cuts, we lost and Val Shawcross shut Manchester Square station and took away one of Dockhead's fire engines plus others.
 
Isn't it funny how at the time Labour's Mayor Ken Livingstone and Labour's Assembly Member Val Shawcross were happy to slash fire service funding, shut fire stations and remove essential fire appliances five years ago and now, Val feels happy to criticise the Conservatives for doing exactly the same? 
 
I hope I helped you get your memory back Val?

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails