Can Haringey residents afford another four years of Livingstone? 27/01/04

Can you afford this nightmare?

The cost of keeping Ken Livingstone as London Mayor is too high for the capital, his Conservative rival Steve Norris has declared.

Mr Norris has published a new report "The cost of Livingstone" which reveals how much Londoners have had to pay for the mayor's profligate policies since his election in 2002.

And the Conservative candidate warns that if Mr Livingstone is re-elected later this year, council taxes and other costs will continue to rise while more public money is frittered away on wasted projects.

Warning that council tax levies - which have doubled in four years - will double again under a renewed Livingstone administration, Mr Norris declared: "Londoners understand very well what the cost of Livingstone means for them - ever higher council taxes. Livingstone is like someone who has gone on a wild shopping spree on someone else's credit card but with nothing to show for it."

He added: "There is more bad news to come with the threat of another four years of Livingstone's financial disaster. Despite the huge amounts of additional council tax, people simply do not feel safer on London's streets or that the tube network is any better."

The report points out that when Ken Livingstone first took office in June 2000, a family living in Haringey in a Band D house would have paid a precept of £123 a year to the Mayor. The same bill four years later is £247. The Mayor plans to continue spending recklessly with £300 million allocated for transport alone. The costs of introducing just his transport proposals would push council tax up to £508.

It also documents how the number of staff employed by the Mayor has more than doubled to 630. Under the original plan, the GLA was supposed to have up to 250 staff at a cost of £20 million. Livingstone now has over 630 staff at a cost of almost £60 million.

And millions more have been frittered away on self publicity for the Mayor, including a massive £18 million advertising budget; the £2 million on Livingstone's bi-monthly newspaper, The Londoner; and a further £100,000 wasted on a London Conference with speakers from far left groups and CND.

ENDS.

Notes to Editors:

Mayor Livingtone has only visited Haringey TWICE since being elected three and a half years ago. The Mayor has yet to visit neighbouring Enfield.