‘You need a figure of authority in uniform to keep order and help people on and off the back of the bus, and that can be done by community support officers,’ says mayor of new Routemasters
Police community support officers will be used to replace “old-fashioned” bus conductors on the new Routemaster buses in London, Boris Johnson said today.
The mayor of London said that “transport police community support officers” would help people on and off the back of the new fleet of buses and provide a figure of “authority” for passengers.
Johnson outlined his surprise plans for the staffing of the new bus fleet on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC Radio London this morning.
The issue of bus conductors was prompted by a question from Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, who appeared on Feltz’s show yesterday.
Clegg, who described himself as a “great fan” of the Routemaster, recorded his question for the show today: “I want to know more about Routemasters. Is it going to be worth the nostalgia? How is it going to work with ticket collectors. Are we going to be jumping on and off?”
Johnson replied that the new buses would not be “nostalgic”, other than the essential hop-on-and-off feature of the iconic old buses.
He said: “What we are not going to do is have the old-fashioned conductor because you don’t need them. What you do need is a figure of authority in uniform to help people to keep order and you know, to help people on and off the back [of the bus], and that can almost certainly be done by transport PCSOs [police community support officers].”
But the plans received short shrift from the Metropolitan Police Federation.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the federation, said Johnson’s comments suggested a “complete lack of understanding” over the role of PCSOs.
He said: “They are meant to be a visible patrol part of policing. They are not trained and not designed to deal with confrontational situations. Furthermore, they should work in pairs with police support and supervision nearby.
“There is an unfortunate tendency in some quarters to view CSOs as a cheap panacea for all of societies ills. Mr Johnson appears to be slipping into this frame of mind. This could be seen as showing a complete lack of understanding for the role of community support officers.”
He added: “If Mr Johnson is serious about improving behaviour on public transport then employ the people who would be able to deal with it firmly and fairly – that means real police officers.”
The issue of bus conductors dominated the mayoral elections after Johnson came under fire for claiming it would cost just £8m to hire conductors as part of his plans to bring back the Routemaster.
Johnson’s populist pledge to resurrect the iconic bus scrapped in favour of bendy buses by Ken Livingstone, the former mayor, was a key feature of his election campaign.
But Johnson’s £8m price tag was swiftly challenged by Transport for London figures, which suggested the real cost was £110m.
Despite standing by the original figure, Johnson was subsequently caught out on the campaign trail by a member of the public when he told a woman that his team had calculated it would actually cost “about a £100m”.
Johnson said today that the new Routemaster would be markedly different from the old.
“It will certainly be considerably lighter than the existing vehicles, and that will not only be saving the fuel we use in probably a hybrid engine but it will also make less noise,” he said. “It’s absolutely vital we go ahead.”
Johnson’s scheduled appearance on the Feltz show overran by 16 minutes as he espoused views at odds with the policy line of the Conservative party.
Johnson panned the “sheer negativity and hysteria” in the media about the economic slump, which he said was “self reinforcing” – a contrast to Tory pronouncements about “Gordon Brown’s recession”.
And the mayor sympathised with Alistair Darling, the chancellor, over his efforts to get “more credit” into the financial system.
Despite Tory leader David Cameron’s repeated call to end the culture of spending in favour of saving, Johnson said of Darling: “I can understand where he is coming from.”
The Tory mayor then described plans by the Liberal Democrats to introduce one-year paid paternity leave for fathers as “absolutely crackers”, despite the fact that the Conservatives have also outlined family flexibility plans which would allow parents to take one year’s paid parental leave between then.
Johnson said that the prospect of fathers staying at home with their children would be “extremely bad for children” as well as for business. “It’s another example of introducing unnecessary rigidity into employment relations,” he said.
“I don’t think employers, particularly at a time when they are facing a real struggle to keep people on their books and real pressures to lay people off, want some extra imperative to give people the option … of taking a year off work. I don’t see how that is a job-creating measure.”
Confusion was sown after Feltz asked him whether he thought it was a good or bad thing that France’s justice minister, Rachida Dati, returned to work just five days after giving birth to a baby girl by caesarean section. Johnson was caught on the back foot as he thought he was being asked to comment on Dati’s birthing experience. “What, a caesarian?” he asked.
“No, the fact she went back after five days,” Feltz replied.
“Well she seemed to have worked out some system to make it work,” said Johnson, recovering himself.
The mayor sailed close to the wind when he appeared to call Sir Ian Blair, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, an “old lemon”.
Johnson, who controversially ousted Blair last year after telling him he had no confidence in him, was taken to task by Feltz over the affair.
Johnson said defiantly: “I am not going to go over something that has been supermasticated by the entire media for months and months. This is really squeezing an old lemon. I didn’t want to describe Sir Ian as an old lemon but I think we are going to have a fantastic new citrus fruit of some variety.”
Listeners also heard that Johnson had been a “victim” of congestion charging after forgetting to pay when going to a Hanukah event recently. “I got done by my own system and I forgot to pay and then bing! I got the £60 fine. I have just coughed up,” he said.
His admission came after a caller called Sarah reminded him of a conversation she had had with him during the mayoral campaigns in which he promised to extend the existing time frame (48 hours) for paying the congestion charge after entering the zone.
“I totally forgot that,” said Johnson before adding: “We are going to move to a different system of paying it when new technology comes in so we have an accounts based system. That’s what I was driving at.” Johnson also took the opportunity to discuss Fridays at City Hall, when he drags out City Hall’s “top brass” to cycle around London in a bid to develop a “fast, convenient route” for cyclists.
He promised that his new bike hire scheme would be in place by the end of next year as part of measures to encourage more people to get on their bikes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/08/routemasters-boris
