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Giles Pepperell.
You should have limited your post to the first two words - Go Boris.
I doubt if you suffer from daily congestion in Bangor, despite the proximity of the A55.
Try travelling round the centre of London during the day. Despite the Congestion Charge, the roads are clogged.
The simple fact is that there are too many cars in the centre of London. Virtually every one of these is adding to the pollution that we all have to breath in.
Boris should be looking at policies such as taxing workplace parking and car parking subsidies, which encourage people to add to the congestion and pollution in Central London.
Boris has made a total mockery of any Green Credentials that the Conservatives would like people to think they have.

- Andrew, London W1

Climate change - Mother Nature - Simples !

- Wills, Soton

That's it Boris, get rid of all these money scoffing quangoes. The likes of Nicky Gavron who has more 'air miles' than a pilot, thinks that this is OK, because she is 'saving the planet' Get rid of all these green hypocrites, let them go and get a proper jobs instead of living off ratepayers cash.

- Terry Hudson, Herne Bay, Kent

This will come back to haunt the Tories (and all the rest of us), now that their green credentials and pretensions about equality have just gone up in smoke.

- Austen, London

Mark Lee and Sally Gordon

The congestion charge was a mega waste of money and it hasn't improved air quality. It has put more dirty diesel buses on the roads. and paid for misguided measures like bus lanes and pedestrianisation that delayed traffic and increased emissions.

Boris is going to improve the environment by getting traffic moving again.

- Jools, London

Mark Lee of Vauxhall.

The problem with the environmentalists is that they focus on it to the exclusion of all else rather than taking a balanced position based on everything else that we are trying to achieve.

- Ian Gilbertson, Newcastle

Good for Boris, "Equalities Departments"? What a COMPLETE waste of money. Just another pc loony left idea.

- Francesca Quine, London, UK

Go, Boris!

Smaller more efficient government is the way forward, not green nonsense and PC employment schemes.

I've enjoyed reading the comments of all the misguided hand-wringers on here; democracy in action.

- Giles Pepperell, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales

surely it is very green to have less environmental officers? less people using CO2 to get to and from work, fewer compuetrs running etc. Couldn't be more green!

- Ag, London Village

Value for money, that is all we ask. Cut out the dead wood. As another commenter said, I doubt that very few people their do a full days work.

- Frank, Home Counties, England.

Good on yer Boris. We're sick of whining, holier-than-thou Greens. Sack 'em all!

- Chris, Brighton, England

It's quite clear that Boris doesn't give a fig about the environment. Since coming to power he's scrapped the Western CC, ditched phase three of the WEZ, allowed more flights at City Airport, scrapped the Cross-River Tram, scrapped DLR extensions, and launched proposals to build four new runways in the Thames Eastury, in addition to those already in London (he's on record as saying he wouldn't close any airports if he opened the Eastury Airport).

And all we've got in return is a fabled new bus, which will allegedly by hybrid. Why can't we just retro-fit existing buses?

Five of our boroughs already exceed safe levels of air pollution. When is Boris going to wake up and actually do something positive for the environment?

- Mark Lee, Vauxhall

I didn't realise that we were the "dirty OLD man of Europe", isn't it just the dirty man of Europe? Dirty old man has connotations of an old bloke in a mac flashing at people.... Perhaps we're one of those as well...

- Mcw, London

We put Boris in to cut the council tax so far hes doing ok

- Dave Smith, Croydon

More the better, get rid of all the greens, complete waste of money, now they can look to the future and try doing a proper days work!

Come on Boris, keep up the good work, save the tax payers even more money, sack more of these town hall skivers, and while your at it, scrap both bus lanes and the "Rip off" congestion charge.

- George, Bellingham

Tell you what all the green lobbyist and liberalist readers out there; let's actually see what the titles/positions are of these cuts, and then look at exactly what they've delivered in their time.

Has my quality of life improved over the last 8yrs through paying for 40 environmentalists? No.

- Scott, London

Well done Boris - keep slashing away at all the thousands of penpushers and bureaucrats that we hapless council tax payers are funding. You are doing what you promised in your manifesto; nice to see a politician who keeps his word.

- Claretta, London

This kind of common sense is long-overdue in London - it's why we elected you, Boris.

- Hugh, London

I worked in City Hall for a very considerable time and found it to be like a school playground. People come and go as they like and no one's behaviour or level of attendance is seriously questioned. A few of them may be working properly but it is my belief that sheer hundreds of them are deadweights and layabouts.

- J, London

Good on you Boris - keep cutting!

I am delighted to read this news! I joined the LDA from the private sector but left quickly a couple of years ago in professional disgust at the ridiculous amount of mostly non productive resources employed and silly reliance on expensive external consultants. In addition, there was a lack of any effective governance between the LDA and City Hall, and little personal sense of responsibility or accountability by many employees for doing a decent day's work, never mind concern about delivery of value of money to London taxpayers. It was the worst local government for the most important UK city. I am impressed by the current regime's efforts taking on the very difficult challenges to sort it out.

- Mike, london

"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."

Rubbish, Boris - no one interested in environmentally friendly transport is going to want to work for you given your first year record - WEZ, 4x4 tax, Parliament Square, cancelling tram and DLR projects etc. The remnants of the environmental team will be marginalised and ignored - that's the only reason to slash-and-merge them.

I look forward to an in-depth investigation of this extra use of consultants - I thought we were going to get *conductors*, not consultants. Some explaining to do, there.

- Tom, London, UK

Can't say I'm surprised - remember Boris won the election pretty much on the back of the pro-car/anti-CC lobby. Heaven forbid suggest that vehicles cause traffic.

Bitter irony now follows - Remember, pedestrians don't pay road tax, so they shouldn't even be on the roads.

The man is an oaf. And that's putting it politely.

- Steven Allcott., Borough

"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."


Like encouraging more traffic in central London? Scrapping the CC extension? Keeping Parliament Square a traffic-choked blight? Forcing pedestrians to dart across the road before the lights change?

The whole proposal is based on the ludicrously naive idea that there is lots of hidden spare road capacity available for cars that has until now somehow escaped the notice of generations of traffic engineers... it is truly ridiculous; and completely contradicts Boris's stated policy to support walking. TfL has been spending loads of money reviewing pedestrian provision in the capital and identifying where crossings etc need to be improved; including reducing waiting time at pedestrian crossings. Now another bit of TfL will be going round reversing these improvements, for benefits that few drivers will notice but at a price that will cause very real difficulties for the most vulnerable pedestrians.

- Sally Gordon, Mile End

Someone should send Boris the survey of over 2000 people by OPINION RESEARCH."They found that 50% of respondents said securing a deal to boost the economy should be the key concern for world leaders."

Why is the Mayor cutting the budget for London by £3bn and laying off the workforce that keep London running.

London is ranked a the best city in the world. If it is to keep its competitive edge then it requires sufficient investment, especially at this difficult economic time.

- Damien Vaugh, Greenwich ,London

Excellent news. There must be lots more wasters like this that we can get rid of. And if Boris can do it, so too can town halls throughout the country. If the retrenched workers have to go on the dole, it's cheaper and also better than having them occupying non-jobs and interfering in our lives.

- Ken, Bexleyheath

Of course he's going to be criticized for cutting jobs - but for those of us who got our Council Tax Bill yesterday, can I say: thanks Mr. Mayor for keeping your election promises?

- Sallyr, London, UK

Very sensible. Slashing all these greenies' jobs will save their journey to work and the heating and lighting in their offices. That lowers their carbon footprints and saves the world.

- Thomas, London

Why should City Hall duplicate a service that is being provided by far greater (London) setups?

- Tony Islander, Herts

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