• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

For the record I have nothing to hide in my expenses. Also it might be of interest that last night I checked in my garden shed and found that I was fresh out of chicken feed as well! I think that is of some topical interest. I think you are getting the wrong target here, Mayor, which is you are talking about transparency and what we really need to talk about is trust and what happened was a breakdown in trust for Londoners in the Mayor's Office and the quality of your leadership and administration. Would you accept that there...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

It is pleasing to see a permit system and some sort of controls for utility roadworks coming in because there have been so many false dawns under the previous administration, when we were told it was going to happen but it did not. But a lot of the roadworks which cause the worst disruption in London are actually roadworks which are sponsored and managed by TfL itself. That will not bring those under control. An example, of course, is the recent episode which has lasted for about a year with the Gallows Corner flyover due to finish in August. Can...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

On the topic of allowing athletes to get to sporting venues - and I know the timings are quite tight - but can we ensure that the London Triathlon - which is the largest triathlon in the world by numbers of participants and is an absolute international showcase -- can we encourage the DLR to allow athletes - bearing in mind that cycling is one of the three disciplines in triathlon - to bring their bicycles on the DLR to the venue?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Thank you, Chair. This seems to be an opportune moment to welcome here members of the North East London and Essex Group of Advanced Motorists who are in the audience. Mr Mayor, there are concerns about the future for the Olympic Route Network and the possibility of it being used as a way of introducing by stealth some traffic control measures which then will not be removed after the Games have gone and the party has moved on. Can you assure us that all our roads will be returned to pre-Games state and they will not be clogged up with...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Mr Mayor, you have already made reference to the views of London boroughs so, for example, my own borough of Barnet did an exhaustive enquiry as to whether we could locate travellers' sites. Under the last Labour/Liberal Democrat administration of Barnet the then Labour Leader of the Council made a very firm statement that, having examined this in great detail, the Council said there were no suitable sites in the London Borough of Barnet. That has since been reinforced by further work by the Conservative administration. So will you accept that in many of these boroughs there is cross-party unanimity...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Just a very brief point on the matter you just brought up in the answer to my colleague's question. I think most Londoners will find it difficult, without the advantage of context, to really understand the significance of the point we are making. I just want to use an example of the two boroughs that I represent; Bexley and Bromley. I think most people will not be able to understand why two boroughs who currently have vacant pitches - so there is a surplus of provision - would need so dramatic an increase as could potentially be forced upon us...

• Question by: Richard Barnbrook
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Morning, Mayor Boris. There does seem to be a slight contradiction in terms here and I would like to believe that you would agree with me on this. But before I go into this contradiction, my first hand knowledge in Swanley where travellers - both Irish, English and also East European - had actually settled down, with a policy with Sevenoaks Council, to be housed in bricks and mortar which many of them actually wanted to do. But the point here is that, I think, the term traveller means you are constantly on the move. By my own knowledge again...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Mr Mayor, I think Mr Shah's approach to this has been perhaps a touch one sided. We have a large Tamil community in Redbridge and they were very much involved with their Member of Parliament, Lee Scott, during this demonstration and Lee [Scott] visited the demonstrators and came back with reports from them about how pleased they were with the sensitive way that the Metropolitan Police Service had handled this demonstration and how in fact it contrasted with some of the more heavy handed behaviour that we had seen with them handling other demonstrations elsewhere in London. Will you congratulate...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

It is a ministerial position. Sorry - I defer to my more knowledgeable colleagues. A ministerial position. And also, all across the country, there are Mayors who have permanent drivers and a car. Are there any plans to bring in a Mayoral car and driver under this administration?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 15 July 2009

Are you not surprised, Mr Mayor, at the area of the room in which these questions have come from - Mr Biggs and, sitting next to him, Mr Duvall. When Mr Biggs, before he left early the Budget Monitoring Subcommittee, sat in that Committee and listened to evidence in a question from myself where I asked whether or not it was the procedures that you had put into place that had exposed this shortfall, we had a reply from Andrew Travers saying, 'I think it is in large part due to the changes and improvements that we have put in...