• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Mr Mayor, what precautions are you going to take to protect the blind and the deaf blind who have already made representation about their concerns about shared space and rushing it through? It is very nice around this room. I am sure we can all see the visual joys that shared space must bring but I think it is also a duty upon us, particularly here, to think about those who do not have those advantages and who have already made representations about their concerns. Certainly I would not like to be part of an administration who pushes ahead too...

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Would you accept, Mr Mayor, that the Open Spaces programme is not just a capital investment; it needs to have a revenue element as well? I hope that we do not reproduce the situation of the first public space that Ken Livingstone launched which was Gillett Square in Hackney in the Chair's constituency -- Jennette Arnold (Chair): A very nice space too. Andrew Boff (AM): A very lovely space only through the efforts and the desperate efforts of Hackney Co-operative Developments. Otherwise it would be completely windswept and useless and a very, very nice venue for the local drunks to...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Mr Mayor, the question talks about long term health costs to Londoners. How do you think this compares to the long term health costs of the Labour Government's support for the third runway at Heathrow which is already amongst the most polluted parts of the capital?

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Mr Mayor, I am quite sure that no one in this Chamber or outside would argue that there is not a well established link between poverty and ill health. I applaud your decision to delay the implementation of a Low Emission Zone and thus prevent potentially thousands of employees and owners of small businesses from losing their livelihoods and being plunged into poverty. What I would ask is that you continue to look holistically at the effect on Londoners' health and not just listen to the single issue cries from people who, I suspect, feel rather bruised that one of...

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

I never realised that the X26 was going to reach such an iconic status in the London transport system. It is a rich joy to travel on that bus. I share Valerie's concerns about the lack of extension of the Tube to Upper Norwood. I share that although I did not share the platform with you the other evening. Mr Mayor, would you not agree that the earlier questioning does belie perhaps a lack of understanding around what the Outer London Commission is going to deliver and a lack of understanding around what a growth hub would actually be? Would...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

An issue that is often raised with me in outer London is the zoning system and there are huge anomalies in different parts of London and, obviously, that has a cost to Londoners. Have you asked your Outer London Commission to look at these issues?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Mr Mayor, absolutely. I think you will get unanimity on this Assembly about the amount of money that is shifted out of London in order to prop up the economy in the rest of the country. You are right; it is London that is the engine of the United Kingdom. Can you assure me, however, with regard to small businesses, that you will look into any part of the GLA group that may choose this time to increase rents for small businesses?

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Can you tell me, just to remind us, on the ten academies, they are new academies but they are not new schools are they? Can you just clarify that? Or will some be new schools?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Do you remember, when we discussed this before, that a majority of this Assembly actually voted to support you on the amnesty for illegal immigrants and I just want to reiterate that some of us are totally behind you, if not in front of you, leading the charge on that. So we are very happy. Are you still happy to work together with the Assembly to make some sort of joint case for the Government so that we can keep pushing on this?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 25 March 2009

Good morning, Mr Mayor. You probably know that at the moment the social housing waiting list is actually 350 households. That is probably over one million people.