• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

Following on from that, Mr Mayor, could you turn your attention towards the attitude of some boroughs, based on the requirements of the London Plan I believe, which has turned into open hostility towards live work units? Live/work units are an important contribution to encouraging enterprise, following on from what James Cleverly has said, but in some boroughs there seems to be the belief that live work units are the invention of the devil and they will turn them down at every opportunity. If we are to be able to localise employment to reduce the need to travel and to...

• Question by: James Cleverly
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

Mr Mayor, will you also join me in celebrating not just the economic benefit that small businesses have but the social and environmental benefits? Small businesses employ the vast bulk of all people in employment and, more importantly, they often employ people much closer to their home. If we were able in some way to help expand the number and size of small businesses within the capital we may well find that fewer people are forced on a twice daily basis to either use private or public transport into the centre of London. With that in mind will you pay...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

I wonder if I can make another suggestion to you about how you can help small retail businesses. As every single constituency Member here knows, the principal anchor of small shopping parades is likely to be the sub post office. There is a question later on this agenda about the future of post offices. Would it not be helpful if you were able to ensure the survival of these small sub post offices by offering to deliver through the medium of the post office services which otherwise are tapped by people coming to City Hall but, more significantly, offering some...

• Question by: Richard Tracey
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

Mr Mayor, when you have discussions with the Secretary of State in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and indeed discussions with the Sports Minister, would you and Kate Hoey stress the importance of Sport England money going into this kind of project which I absolutely agree with my colleague, Steve O'Connell, is an excellent use of money to bring young people into sport? It really is very important that Sport England do, if I may use the expression, keep their eye on the ball in this way rather than perhaps ploughing too much money in other directions.

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

If I may, thank you very much for your answer, Mr Mayor. I think this is a great example of how we can engage young people in worthwhile activities and also break down the barriers often between young people and the police. The police are very involved in this piece of work, both financially and in time, in partnership with the football clubs in our different boroughs; Crystal Palace - I declare an interest as a lifelong supporter - in Croydon and Sutton. What are also important are the statistics. At the time when these activities are going on there...

• Question by: Steve O'Connell
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

Thank you, Mayor. I will turn very quickly to overground stations designing out crime around the British Rail stations under your remit. I think it is very important to flag up that when we are looking at new stations and work around new stations, particularly for example East Croydon Station, we need to look at designing out crime around the overground network, Mayor. Do you wish to very quickly comment upon that?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 18 June 2008

We all know here that you are a person of extreme common sense and hugely good judgement -

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

OK. Does that mean therefore that you will be putting additional double decker services on those routes in order to make up the capacity that will be lost by the removal of the bendy buses?

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

Mayor, you have mentioned several times, I think, that you will be phasing out the bendy buses as the contracts expire, and of course at the moment the competition for the design and production of the new Routemaster has not actually started. There are six routes of the bendy bus contract which are due to lapse next summer. What would your plans be to replace those routes?

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

So if costs prove prohibitive and it was a choice between a conventional diesel Routemaster - - or a hybrid double decker of the design that we have at the moment, which side of the fence would you be on?