The London Fire Brigade has revealed some of the strangest calls to its 999 control centre in a bid to reduce the 5,000 non-emergency calls received each year. The Brigade says requests to fish keys out of drains, retrieve footballs from trees, or shoo rats out of kitchens detract from its efforts to help Londoners in […]
Fall in London bike thefts welcomed
London’s cycling commissioner has welcomed a fall in the number of bikes stolen over the past 12 months. Since October 2012 the number of bikes stolen in the capital has fallen by 11 per cent, with 2,000 fewer offences recorded. From October 2012 to the end of August 2013 was 19,052, compared with 21,488 in […]
London tourism numbers rise by almost 8%
A record-breaking 8m tourists visited the capital in the first six months of 2013, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Visitor numbers were 7.7% higher than for the same period last year, suggesting the capital is enjoying a post-Olympic boost. The increase also pushed spending by tourists up 12.4% to £4.9 billion […]
Lord Carlile to head Boris’s Met Police Ethics Panel
Lord Carlile, the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, is to Chair a new panel examining the ethics and quality of policing in the capital. In July Mayor Boris Johnson announced plans to examine the Met’s practices following a number of complaints about the conduct of undercover officers. Concerns have been raised about the force’s […]
TfL creates 30 jobs for ex-Armed Forces personnel
Transport for London is creating 30 new posts for ex-Armed Forces members as part of efforts to help former military personnel back into work. The capital’s transport authority says many service personnel have skills which can be transferred to the transport sector where there is a shortfall of skilled engineering and planning staff. An earlier […]