Boris Johnson is under pressure today over his broken election promises.
 
The Guardian and the Evening Standard both report concerted questioning by the Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat groups on the London Assembly over pledges that have been abandoned or ignored by the mayor.
 
Assembly members carried a motion that said: “This Assembly regrets that the Mayor has backtracked or failed to make progress on a large number of his election promises.  An election is a time of serious promises and Londoners are urgently owed an explanation.”
 
Boris Johnson was questioned about broken promises including: his plans to close ticket offices at Tube stations despite promises not to do so; his intention to spend more than £100 million of public money on the cycle hire scheme after saying there would be no cost to taxpayers; the failure to implement his commitment to introduce ‘tidal flow’ in the Blackwall tunnel, his resignation as chair of the police authority,and his failure to take enough action on promises to embed the London Living Wage, improve air quality and deliver 50,000 affordable homes. 

Boris Johnson has broken a key election pledge with his announcement today of huge staff cuts at London Underground that threaten staffing at ticket offices.
 
Although closures of ticket offices may not be limited to outer London stations, these are bound to bear the brunt of any cuts.

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 by Jenny Jones AM, Green Party

Having spent nine years pushing for road safety to be taken seriously by the Met Police, I find that the previous slow incremental improvements are now being reversed with barely a guilty shrug from the Mayor’s office. First, there is a decline of 20 police officers, 5 PCSOs and 5 staff working on road safety. Secondly, cuts to the London Safety Camera Partnership mean the redeployment of 45 police staff, which means it’s a way of letting off 280,000 speeding drivers and red light jumpers who would previously have been sent fines.

What is particularly worrying is that this cutback on enforcing the rules of the road is happening at the same time as the Mayor is promoting trials of the naked streets idea and the removal of traffic lights. As much as I have argued for the removal of pedestrian guard rails, I differ from Boris regarding his description of traffic lights as ‘street clutter’. Naked streets are a brilliant idea if done in the right way, with lots of consultation with vulnerable road users, but a 20mph speed limit is normal in the European towns where they have been trialed. Above all, the overseas culture of driving is different. Dutch towns don’t have tens of thousands of uninsured drivers on their streets and unlike Newham, they don’t have to cope with a quarter of road casualties involving a hit and run driver. The idea that eye contact is enough to slow drivers down doesn’t take into account the illegal nature of many drivers who will simply drive off in the event of a collision.