Police stations should bring in more flexible opening hours so officers can be there when their community needs them, Boris Johnson said.

The Tory candidate for mayor unveiled his plans on a visit to an Isle of Dogs police station which only opens at midday.

He criticised part-time police stations and warned that if any closed after a high-level consultation they must be replaced with 24-hour access to police.

Mr Johnson pledged to " build bridges" between the police and communities to give them faith that reporting crime was not a waste of time.

Under the proposals, borough commanders would be compelled to hold monthly public meetings.

Mr Johnson said: "Londoners want leadership from their Mayor. They don't want someone who puts their hands up and says there is nothing that can be done to stop crime escalating.

"The mayor can do so much to turn the tide. Building bridges between the police and the communities they serve is a good place to start."

Mr Johnson has already pledged to take personal responsibility of the police. He aims to do so by chairing the Metropolitan Police Authority should he win the election.

Johnson's comments came as Ken Livingstone was coming under pressure to explain plans to spend 45 times more money on security and policing the Olympics than on tackling the epidemic of teenage killings.

The Green party are planning to take the Mayor to task today when his proposed annual budget is debated by the London Assembly.

• 

  Sex, lies and the Stasi

  On this day in 1989 the Berlin Wall was finally breached, ending the reign of East Germany’s feared security service. Here Anne McElvoy, who spent much of the Eighties in the city, recalls her encounters with the spooks

  ---

• 

  The geeky-girl solo artists descending on the music scene

  Kookiness is what sells music these days and these opinionated artists have it in spades, says Jasmine Gardner

  ---

Why Sam's in the clear over that M&S dress

At last the truth about the M&S spotted dress that Sam Cam wore to the Conservative Party Conference

All stories