Search questions

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

One statistic that your people did not find relating to the question that I asked was how many of the fires that they were called to did they put out?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

I am grateful to you for that very full answer. It does not convince me that this service is worth the £1.6 million that it costs. If I may draw your attention to a couple of things, are you aware that during the past year additional RNLI Lifeboat Stations have been opened in the upper Thames? I have two in my constituency for example. They have been called out to a fair number of those things you described as `other incidents' like persons in the river. Do you not think that there may now be an opportunity for suggesting that...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

My question leads on from Tony's (Arbour) and then I have a separate question. The first part to it is that the title, as I know it, is the Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Not long ago, part of the Environment Committee's work was to do with flooding, which is not a fire. As far as I know, fires and flooding are not necessarily completely and utterly linked except for electrical faults, but there are issues around flooding. Taking on from Tony Arbour's question, presumably the review that you are doing will not include just fire.

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

I do have another quick question, which is around the pay settlement. At what point do we review the terms and conditions on a particular issue that comes up every year, a recycled issue, which is on station cooks. I have a concern around the sickness and health levels of our firefighters and in fact the whole team. Where would that fit with the abolition of cooks?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

I wonder if you could tell me on how many of those occasions the boats were called out to fires? On how many occasions was there a fire they had to put out and perhaps you could also give me some idea of the other kinds of things the fireboats were called upon to do?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

I agree. Who pays?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

Can I just ask, on London resilience, is the FBU co-operating fully with the training for this?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

What about the money?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

That does because it was the £2 million against the £11 million, which is the crucial number. Then you say that there is absolutely no dispute between us about the importance of this work and I would indeed pay tribute to what our officers have been doing in terms of pushing it forwards and contributing to the national discussion. But the issue is money. Can I take you back to where we were at budget-making time, where the original figure being talked about was £15 million and it was later reduced to £11 million. Your position, the current Mayor's position...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 12 November 2003

We are agreed on the modernisation and the importance of driving that forwards and getting flexibility so we can integrate these sorts of new equipment. The problem is today there is a very real, not just capital cost, but revenue cost and I am concerned. I look back to when you were last here in January and I again asked about resilience and what you then said was rather more aggressive, if I can put it that way, about the Government. You were saying that `it is clearly unsatisfactory that we have not had an indication about whether or not...