Petts Wood and Knoll councillor Simon Fawthrop has officially announced his candidacy to be the next Mayor of London.

Coun Fawthrop, who has been a councillor since 2006, threw his hat into the ring on Saturday (June 27).

The Tory councillor, who has the best attendance record for 2014/15, outlined his key campaigning points which include not building on green belt land until all brownfield sites are developed.

On his other policies, he said: “I would divert between £200-400m from Transport for London (TfL) to spend on car parks in outer London to encourage the use of public transport.

“These would be at major transport interchanges and railway stations; the idea being people would register at a car park and pay for it on their oyster card.”

Moving away from a ‘top-down’ approach he would abolish house building targets in the capital, and said: “Any housing association where the CEO or deputy are paid more than the Mayor or Prime Minister will not get funding from the Mayor, people live in hostels and these people are on a quarter of a million pound salaries.”

MORE TOP STORIES He would encourage the Mayor’s office to reduce demand instead of meeting supply, and urge employers to source staff locally and encourage flexible working practices, such as working from home. 

He added: “My idea is putting communities first, bringing less interference from the Mayor.

“I’m not convinced we need a Mayor if we can get things down to the borough level, bringing decision making to people so they can have a say.”

When asked why he would make a good Mayor, Coun Fawthrop said: “I would probably be totally unsuitable to be Mayor on the grounds that I probably wouldn’t really want to do it.

“It’s not about being Mayor it’s about sorting things out. It’s been a mess and we have a beauty contest every four years, it should be about trying to sort London out.”

Although he added if won the Conservative Party’s nomination he would ‘go for it big time’, and was not fazed by the other big names in the running.

He said: “It doesn’t mean I don’t stand a chance, but there are some excellent candidates.

“I will be campaigning as hard as I can, hopefully some of my ideas can be picked up even if I’m not chosen.”