Back at City Hall I join colleagues in praising the work of the Emergency Services and lead a debate where we agree to focus our forthcoming investigations on the consequences for London of the August Riots.
On Wednesday 7th September along with the other 24 London Assembly Members we put aside our usual party political tribal heckling and name calling and unanimously praised the bravery, dedication and hard work of London's emergency services in responding to the riots in London during August.
It was one of our better meetings and after an excellent debate, as Chair of the London Assembly; I put the motion that noted the answers to the questions asked in relation to the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Metropolitan Police Service.
We placed on record our thanks to the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade for their work in relation to tackling the disturbances in London in August 2011. Our motion quite rightly condemned all unlawful and anti-social behaviour that formed part of the disturbances; and asked the Metropolitan Police Service to take all necessary actions to bring offenders to justice and to review, and be accountable for, its response to the disturbances.
We also called upon the Mayor of London to take all necessary steps to prevent a re-occurrence of such problems in the streets of London and to ensure that, in partnership with all relevant authorities and organisations, effective recovery plans are put in place for all affected communities, taking full account of the reports of the independent Communities and Victims Panel, which will report to the Deputy Prime Minister.
With order restored and so many of the perpetrators of last months disgraceful looting being bought to book I made the point during the debate; that now is the time for the Assembly to focus it's attention on how to address the long-term consequences of the disturbances. Over the coming months we will look to build a careful evidence based response to this unprecedented outbreak of civil disorder and ensure that the London Assembly's work compliments rather than duplicates the efforts of other inquiries into the riots. For more information about my work go to http://www.JennetteArnold.com and for the role and work of London Assembly go to http://legacy.london.gov.uk/assembly/index.jsp