Mayor's £50m wishlist condemned

Ken Livingstone's relationship with London's town halls took a dive today after they claimed his planned budget for next year contained a ''wish list'' of almost £50million of unnecessary projects.

The Association of London Government, which represents London's 33 boroughs, makes the criticisms in its formal response to the Mayor's spending plans, which it warns will push up council tax far too much.

Chief among the projects labelled surplus to requirements are the Mayor's plan to spend £25million on a squad of 250 bus police, who he says will fight crime on buses and keep bus lanes clear.

The association claims that the move is uneconomical and impractical and would be handled ideally by the new breed of council wardens who will deal with parking and anti-social behaviour.

Mr Livingstone's draft budget will be debated formally by the Greater London Assembly for the first time tomorrow. Assembly members - who require a two-thirds majority to block it - will take a final vote at the end of next month.

Also in the association's sights are the £7million spent on customer information programmes, the £19million spent on the World Squares programme for doing up Trafalgar Square and others, and a planned £500,000 increase in the assembly's PR departments.

It says spending on all these "luxury" areas should be reviewed to reduce the impact of the Mayor's budget on council taxes, which are expected to rise by £52 on the average Band D London home.

The rise - a 35 per cent increase from last year, on top of a 23 per cent increase the year before - has outraged the boroughs, who claim it will ruin their efforts at financial parsimony over the past five years.

Council taxes in at least six London boroughs are expected to rise above the £1,000 mark this year, and the Mayor's precept may well increase that number.

Town halls, who are in charge of collecting council tax, believe voters make little if any distinction between their spending plans and those of the Mayor's.

Association chairman Sir Robin Wales, leader of Labour-run Newham council, said: "The GLA should set itself tougher targets for saving money and demonstrate that it is producing better services that represent better value for money.

This public stance reflects a growing rift with the Mayor, who the association accuses of failing to work closely enough with London's boroughs. Mr Livingstone has responded by saying that it is little more than a sounding board for his critics and has vowed to deal directly with the boroughs instead.

The Mayor's office said: "The bus police project has the full backing of the Metropolitan Police. We would argue that it is extremely necessary in terms of high visibility policing and enforcement."