Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor Brian Paddick outlines his key pledges to restore faith in the Metropolitan Police, target cheaper fares on public transport and reduce the city’s levels of pollution. This is the first in a three part series from the mayoral candidates, including Ken Livingstone and Jenny Jones, with an introduction by Tony Travers

Paddick, Brian

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blogs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2012/03/13/london-mayoral-election-paddick/Brian Paddick: “We need a serious Mayor to tackle theserious problems we face”.Mar 13 2012Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor Brian Paddick outlines his keypledges to restore faith in the Metropolitan Police, target cheaper fares on publictransport and reduce the city’s levels of pollution. This is the first in a three partseries from the mayoral candidates, including Ken Livingstone and Jenny Jones,with an introduction by Tony Travers.  Having served London for 30 years as a police officer I believe this City deservesbetter. London’s choice this May is a stark one – we can either have more of thesame and elect someone who is more concerned with self publicity than tackling London’sproblems, or we can choose someone who will knuckle down and get serious about dealing with theissues facing the capital.I’m a born and bred Londoner, and lucky to have travelled enough to appreciate that London’senergy and diversity is rare among world cities. It’s what makes London a special place for us allbut, it also has more than its fair share of problems. Its police force is detached from thecommunities it serves, its creaking transport system is overpriced, and millions of people struggleto meet the rent or mortgage on a monthly basis.The capital needs a Mayor who’s in-touch with Londoners and understands that these deep-seatedissues can overshadow the benefits we should all enjoy by living here. This cannot be resolved byfunny one-liners, nice looking expensive buses and vanity projects, or empty and irresponsiblepromises about huge reductions in fares that could never be delivered.  There needs to be a morethoughtful, measured approach that brings fresh ideas and purpose to City Hall.Crucially the job of London Mayor is changing. Since January this year the Mayor has also becomethe capital’s Police and Crime Commissioner, making the Metropolitan Police directly accountableto him and him alone. In other words, this election will decide the most important elected police chiefin the country, and as a former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met, with over 30 years ofexperience, I believe I’m better suited than the other candidates. Crime is the number one issue forLondoners, and after last summer’s riots, and a rise in robbery and burglary, I’m not surprised.It’s now been six months since those riots swept through London. The rebuilding of lives andbusinesses in the many parts of London that suffered continues to take time – too much time. I havebeen shocked to find that in some cases, the Metropolitan Police have only appointed lossadjusters to assess riot damages claims within the past six weeks. One particular shop owner isliving off charity handouts because the police have failed in their legal duty to pay compensation.How can that be acceptable? Thousands of decent, honest police officers put their lives on the linefor us every day but they are being let down by their bosses and the Mayor. The police in partcaused the riots, failed to tame the rioters and are now adding insult to injury by dragging their heelsover compensation. The Mayor is failing Londoners by not holding the police properly to account.It’s hard to find evidence that the police or the Mayor have learnt the lessons of last summer. Yetriots were the symptom not the cause of London’s problems. Our police are increasingly remote, astheir resources are switched over to specialist units and away from neighbourhood and responsepolicing. Faith in the police is shaken daily by the failure to respond quickly and effectively, focusedas they are on priorities which seem to bare little relation to those of local people.As Londoners, we want the police on our side, and the police want Londoners to support them; thetwo must stand together against the criminals. But the police have got to change. They have got touse stop and search fairly and they have got to use it far more accurately. They have got to prove toLondoners that they are ‘on our side’, that they are policing in accordance with our priorities – nottheir priorities. They have got to stop chasing trivial offences just because they’re easy. We’ve got toget the police to tackle crime – not waste time.My campaign is about actively engaging local communities and ensuring local people have theirvoices heard. I will introduce real neighbourhood policing, restoring safer neighbourhood teams,with more warranted offices with powers of arrest in inner London. As Mayor, I will make sure thepolice community support officers visit every home in London to ask residents how they want thepolice to serve them. From door-to-door canvassing to establishing a new network of “neighbourpatrols” and volunteer groups working with their local police teams to reclaim their streets; I willrestore faith in the Met.I understand the Mayor’s role isn’t just about tackling crime. Many other issues affect London, notleast when it comes to transport, especially the tube where endless fair rises never seem to result inany improvements in services. Ken Livingstone will tell you that he will cut fares, but the truth is themoney he wants to use is earmarked for Crossrail and other major capital projects. To keep farerises as low as he promises through the next term means that the tube upgrade programme wouldsuffer and bus services would have to be reduced. This irresponsible pledge may have grabbed theheadlines, but the Londoners I speak to know it’s an electoral bribe, and let’s not forget, whenLivingstone was Mayor last time, fares rose by 46 per cent.Boris Johnson hasn’t been any better. He has simply failed to get to grips with transport and hasrelied on gimmicks. £11 million for eight new buses, a multi-million pound cable car across theThames, a cycle hire scheme that costs millions in subsidies from bus and tube fares, the list ofirresponsible wasting of our money goes on.As Mayor, I will make travelling in London easier and cheaper by taking specific and targetedaction. I will introduce an early bird rate for commuters travelling before the rush hour to make theirjourney’s more affordable and ease overcrowding on the network but I will also end the obsessionwith the tube and revive our buses with a 1 hour bus pass that means that you won’t be chargedtwice if you have to change buses to reach your destination. I will also introduce a season ticket forthe increasing number of part-time workers and make sure commuters are not ripped-off by unfairlyputting stations in the wrong fare zone.  These are clear, costed and specific and they will make areal difference to millions of Londoners who have to rely on our transport system every day.London’s air quality is poor, contributing to more than 20,000 deaths a year, and the Mayor hasfailed to grasp a hold on the problem. The City faces a huge EU fine for exceeding legal limits of airpollution, and Johnson’s only reaction has been to spray the roads in some of the worst pollutingareas with a liquid that traps dust particles. It’s a temporary measure that won’t solve the issue. Weneed to get serious and reduce these dangerous levels of pollution, helping to get the oldest, mostpolluting, diesel vehicles from the streets and by converting all buses and taxis run on electric.The London Liberal Democrat manifesto will be released this month in which we will make clear allof our policy promises and I’m looking forward to telling London about our radical new LiberalDemocrat agenda for the City. Other priorities will include expanding and developing schemes toget Londoners back into work, improving cycle safety, developing a massive home-buildingprogramme and finally cracking down on rogue landlords.London can’t go on being run by press releases and photo–ops and we don’t need another fouryears of gaffs and the occasional funny one-liners. We need a serious Mayor to tackle the seriousproblems we face. I have the ideas, the record and the commitment to give Londoners thegovernment they deserve.The British Politics and Policy blog team attempted to contact the Conservative candidate, BorisJohnson and his campaign team, on numerous occasions. However we had not received aresponse at the time of publication. Please read our comments policy before posting.About the authorBrian Paddick is the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor in the upcoming Mayelections. He has served in the London Metropolitan Police for over 30 years first as a Constable,and finally as Deputy Assistant Commissioner. He came to prominence for his approach to drugslaw enforcement and acted as the police spokesperson following the 7th July 2005 Londonbombings. He was first selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in 2008.You may also be interested in the following posts (automatically generated):1. London’s choice of mayor will give a tantalising hint of which party will be favourites to win thenext general election2. Vince Cable is right to tackle executive pay, but to do so, he has to build a coalition fromwithin the financial sector to encourage more spartan pay awards. This won’t be easy.3. In order to reform public services for the better, we must first tackle an outdated employmentculture that is bad for both taxpayers and workers4. A state-owned Post Bank could restore trust in UK retail banking, reinvigorate Royal Mail andtackle financial exclusion

Brian Paddick: “We need a serious Mayor to tackle the serious problems we face”

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