Boris faces down green lobby with environment team cuts

BORIS JOHNSON was today criticised over plans to cut his environment and equalities departments.

City Hall sources said the teams had been told they were all at risk and that the £80,000-a-year head of environment position would be abolished.

However it was not clear whether Shirley Rodrigues, who holds the job, would stay at the Greater London Authority in another post.

It is expected that the 40-strong environment team will lose up to 20 people although some may be redeployed.

The cuts are part of 114 posts which will be lost as the Mayor aims to chop £7.5 million from an £80 million budget. Yesterday workers were given a series of presentations by GLA chief executive Leo Boland detailing the restructuring. Staff said they were told they would be expected to become "generalists" rather than "specialists".

They also said the environment department would be "slimmed down and "the number of people monitoring climate change and air quality would be almost non-existent".

Opposition Assembly members condemned the cuts saying they would damage work already carried out.

Labour member Nicky Gavron, the driving force behind much of previous mayor Ken Livingstone's environment policy, said: "The GLA environment team have helped transform London from being the 'dirty old man of Europe' to being a global leader in the battle against climate change. You can bring in all the generalists, consultants and academics you like but there is no substitute for a renowned practical policy team with this level of expertise."

Green Party member and deputy chairman of the Assembly, Darren Johnson, said: "With such big staff cuts I am concerned about whether the Mayor could really deliver his statutory duties on the environment.

"Under the previous administration City Hall had been at the forefront of new environmental initiatives but will this be able to continue if the GLA's environment team is slashed in half?" Mr Boland's briefing stated that there will be a move from 36 teams to 17 larger units - including the merging of environment and transport - spread over four main departments.

A spokeswoman for Mr Johnson said: "Success at tackling environmental issues is not measured by the size of the team at City Hall but by the progress of work on the ground.

"The Mayor has an ambitious target to cut London's carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 and a raft of initiatives are being developed increasing the uptake of electric vehicles, boosting cycling, retro-fitting public buildings, producing decentralised energy and utilising waste as a resource.

"The proposed combination of the environment and transport team is a common-sense approach recognising that much of this work to improve the environment involves transport expertise."