Before his election as Mayor of London he vowed to return to Barnet and on Friday Boris Johnson was as good as his word.

The Mayor was back in the borough along with Sir Ian Blair, the Met's chief police commissioner, to attend a ceremony recognising the work of police men and women who have dedicated 22 years of service to the capital.

There was a slight delay to the ceremony at the Hendon police training college in Colindale, however, after Mr Johnson experienced one of the problems Barnet residents will hope he can get to grips with - getting stuck in traffic on Finchley Road.

In typically robust style, Mr Johnson fully accepted blame for the delay as a prelude to his speech in front of an audience of hundreds of police officers and their families.

"The blame now falls squarely on me as the chairman of TfL," he said.

He went on to thank the police for showing some "understanding and kindness when I might inadvertantly have gone through a red light on my bicycle".

"A lot of ambassadors seem to think it's incredible that I still cycle to work," he added. "I have to admit I felt insulted when I was told by the police commissioner that there was no security threat to me.

"But I think that's less a comment on the risk we face than on the skills and hard work of the police forces."

Mr Johnson paid tribute to the "daily acts of bravery" performed by the capital's police officers before handing out medals to almost 200 of them.

Speaking to the Times Series after the ceremony, he explained his plans to bring a mayoral roadshow to Barnet in the coming months.

"I'm going to listen carefully to representations from Barnet. One of the things we're going to do is have a roadshow here in which my team can discuss what we plan to do."