• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Caroline Pidgeon (AM): The Transport Strategy requires improved orbital rail links in inner London. Have you secured Department of Transport funding for Phase II of the East London Line extension, which is now very urgent, and, if not, when will you?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Kit Malthouse (AM): Mr Mayor, I want to ask a question about the philosophy underpinning dealing with some of the environmental issues around transport policy. Would you agree with me that there is a job to be done to explode some of the very lazy thinking around this issue that characterised the previous administration? For example, it struck me as completely 'ungreen' to charge £25 [Congestion Charge for Band G vehicles] and therefore force several thousand Londoners to dump their perfectly good but otherwise unrecyclable cars and buy new smaller cars in greater numbers and then to allow greater numbers...

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

Darren Johnson (Deputy Chair): I am disappointed that you are scrapping the £25 Congestion Charge. It is something that the Greens worked closely with the previous Mayor on. One of the things that we did have a lot of clashes with Ken Livingstone on was over the Thames Gateway Bridge. Are you going to scrap plans for this horrendous six lane road bridge which is going to add to traffic, add to emissions and worsen the problem of climate change?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Do you not agree, Mr Mayor, that all this stuff about a transport hierarchy is actually a load of tosh; someone who is riding on a bus today may be driving tomorrow or walking the day after or even riding a bike if you continue to encourage people to do it. Will you promise that your new strategy will remove all that sort of division and setting Londoners against each other and will actually give everybody a fair chance to use London's limited road space?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Valerie Shawcross (AM): Thank you very much. Can we just talk about cycling for a minute since you have raised it already. I hope you know what this is, Mr Mayor [holds up a cycling helmet]. Can we just talk about your cycling for a moment. Could we have a commitment from you personally to obey the law? Do you believe in a zero tolerance approach to minor offences like riding bikes through red lights, which I gather you may have done a few times on one trip alone, using a mobile phone on the bike, failing to stop at...

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

Richard Barnbrook (AM): Mayor Boris, in my own constituency of Barking and Dagenham there are knife attacks once a week and once every four weeks there is a fatality. Winston McKenzie [an independent candidate for Mayor of London in 2008] put forward a very good project on external sports outside of schools, such as boxing. Is it beneficial for this Assembly and yourself maybe to have a conversation with Winston McKenzie to see if he can give any assistance with prevention [of crime] rather than just stopping?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

John Biggs (AM): The second question then perhaps will be a bit more difficult. Would you accept that in the campaign just past when one read some of the Conservative propaganda it risked stigmatising all the young people and it risked also scaring older people and helping to perpetuate the impression they could not safely leave their doors at night because of the fear of crime when the statistics show that it is extraordinary unlikely that they would be a victim? I do accept there is an issue about people's fear of crime and we need to work on that...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Kit Malthouse (AM): One of the biggest threats to efficient policing and continuing levels of policing in London is the Government funding situation. As you will be aware, the Metropolitan Police Service is on the funding floor in terms of grant and there are funding threats being felt by the organisation. I know you had a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss funding for London. I just wonder whether you could enlighten us more about what assurances he gave you that London will not be penalised in the next funding round for voting Conservative and that he...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

John Biggs (AM): The two questions are: first, would you agree that, in tackling youth crime and getting people into productive lifestyles, one size does not fit all, and so although boxing may be very character building for some it may not be for all and that we need a diversity of provision in London, not just follow the model of one particular project for example?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Jenny Jones (AM): On that topic, London's Cycling Campaigns had a very good idea about putting some bike maintenance training into schools in disadvantaged areas so that young people can have a very practical training if they are failing a bit academically. I did send this idea to one of your advisers and he has not got back to me yet. Could you ask him to get back to me on that?