London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced he’ll be spending £6m of tax payer cash on exclusive toilets for London bus drivers, while complaining there isn’t enough money for proper policing or surveillance of terror suspects in Britain’s capital.
In June 2017 the Mayor told Piers Morgan he couldn’t keep terror suspects under watch in London because the “Met police budget is being shrunk and reduced” by central government.
But savings made from scrapping other programmes could easily have covered the hiring of new police officers from the Mayor’s budget.
Since then, Khan has announced millions of pounds of tax payer cash on green projects, as well as an increase in the monitoring of so-called “hate crimes”.
Now Mayor Khan — despite a London crime surge under his leadership — has announced he’ll be spending £6m on toilets for bus drivers. The announcement comes just one day after Khan again attempted to shift blame onto central government for the policing problem in the capital.
The toilets will be passcode locked for use of London’s bus drivers, which Khan’s father once worked as.
The Mayor’s office boasted of the plan:
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced plans for a further improvement of working conditions for London’s bus drivers by ensuring that all have access to a toilet on their routes for all hours of their working day.
The Mayor plans to allocate £6m of funding to deliver permanent toilets for the capital’s bus drivers along 40 routes which currently only have limited access or opening hours.
A lack of toilet access can be a significant health issue for drivers who can spend hours behind the wheel. Since his election Sadiq has been working hard alongside unions and bus operators to resolve the lack of facilities left behind by the previous Mayor.
Sadiq has already ensured that temporary toilets – such as an arrangement with a local café or shop for drivers to use their facilities – were installed on all routes that didn’t have one. This new funding will allow for the installation of permanent toilets at the end of each of these 40 routes – removing the worry and potential distraction for drivers of not knowing where they will be able to stop.
The move is the latest in a series of improvements for bus drivers delivered by the Mayor. Earlier this year Sadiq introduced the Licence for London, a deal to help drivers fairly move between bus companies, and in December 2016 he secured a new £23,000 minimum wage.
Khan said of the plan: “It can’t be right that a bus driver can be stuck behind the wheel and not know where they can access a toilet. These men and women work hard keeping London moving at all hours so it’s vital that they are given the dignity of having access to a rest stop when they need it. I’ve worked hard to ensure that our 25,000 bus drivers are given a fair pay deal, and am now pleased that we can deliver another real improvement for the day-to-day working conditions.”
AA president Edmund King said: “Traditionally, drivers would look to relieve themselves when they fill up their vehicles but the Petrol Retailers Association claims that from the end of 2008 to the end of 2015, the number of filling stations in the capital fell almost 10% from 606 to 548.”
There are around 25,000 bus drivers in London, meaning for each driver, the Mayor will be spending £240 on a toilet.
It would appear Mr. Khan is more interested in spending money on literal sh*tholes than on fixing the one he has turned London into.
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