• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

But that was one of your criticisms of the bendy bus; that it was high on fare evasion. I am just wondering how you are going to design your new Routemaster if you are having a hop on/hop off yet your new conductors are not going to have fares' responsibility?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

OK, but do you see that there is a problem that people will be left behind at the bus stop for several years waiting for the new Routemaster - - if the buses do not have the capacity. If you do decide that you will put on additional buses to make up the capacity loss of taking out the bendy buses, do you think that will have any impact on the speeds of traffic in central London because, of course, the old buses take a while to load and unload?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

It would cost several million pounds to develop a new Routemaster and then estimates are that each individual bus would be around £50,000 more expensive than a conventional double decker. Are you going to be able to afford to pursue both the greenest technology in terms of vehicle design and pursue this new Routemaster? Are you going to be able to bring both on to the streets of London?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

OK, but in summer 2009 a number of important bendy bus route contracts will come up, including one in my area, the number 12. It is very important to us. The bendy bus carries about 120 people and they are often absolutely packed, central London routes. Would you be replacing them with double deckers in the interim, because of course their capacity is much less than the 120?

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Victoria Borwick (AM): I have a question on the London Plan. Having travelled extensively across London we are all aware of the need for greater youth provision across London which ties in with your campaign, and I think all our campaigns, to tackle the reasons behind crime, would you agree that play space, particularly school playing fields, needs to be preserved across the capital and it will be sensible to use your legacy as the Mayor who stops selling off school and other play space available for the future of our young people?

• Question by: Richard Barnbrook
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Boris, you just mentioned about the fact that it should be down to local communities to decide what happens with regards to housing and developments. In the case of my own parliamentary constituency to become, 80% of people I have spoken to over the last four years do not want the building on the flood plains of Rainham Marshes and Dagenham Marshes, next to the Ford site, where the floor foundations 40 foot deep slipped, I think, it is 10 foot in the last 30 years. Nobody wants to insure properties on that so would you consider scrapping the idea...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Nicky Gavron (AM): Can I finally end on another point which is you have said that you want Londoners to live in beautiful homes of the right size and not rabbit hutches. The previous administration was moving towards introducing minimum space standards. When I first began in planning we did not think Parker Morris was good enough. Now we would die to have Parker Morris and... Well I want you to support that and to make sure it is in your revision to the London Plan and you will have to consider whether it is there for all homes not...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Darren Johnson (Deputy Chair): Just picking up quickly on the point you were making about green homes and promoting insulation and so on; I am encouraged by those comments but in the previous term we had seen a major investment programme from a measly few hundred thousand pounds back in 2004 to a major multi million pound investment programme by 2008 in green homes in terms of the LDA's budget. Are we going to see that level of investment and that level of growth continue?

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Steve O'Connell (AM): Picking up on the work around the London Plan, something that bedevils the quality of life of many people in the outer London boroughs is building on gardens, 'garden grabbing' to use a phrase, and that was an issue coming up very much in the previous months of the election. We very much welcome building in Croydon and Sutton. We very much welcome more affordable housing, appropriate affordable housing in the right places, for our families, affordable for our young families. There is certainly the issue around over-development of back gardens and the ruination of life around...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Can I move on to another point which is a very important component of the Plan which is directly relevant to young people and it is very recent, it has just been put in the Further Alterations; -it is a requirement that all new housing developments in London must provide play and informal recreation space for children and young people, ten square meters per child or teenager, either on site or in the neighbourhood if there is something that can be improved and accessible, and the developers have to maintain that for 15 years.