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

Richard Barnes (AM): Mr Mayor, given that I have been very closely involved with the investigation into the LDA, will you accept my congratulations of taking positive action on behalf of the Authority and London in setting up this panel. Will you also note that of the six companies referred to the police there have been arrests in five of them and further examination is going on in the sixth? Will you also assure us that when you are taking positive action for London you will do it in a transparent and open manner, as you have to date, and...

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

John Biggs (AM): Can I move on very quickly to the issue of Sir Simon Milton who is a man who a lot of Labour Members in local government in London and elsewhere have a great respect for, for his abilities. We may not share his ideology but he is relatively at the 'One Nation' end of the spectrum and that is pretty good news. However, there is a further complication about his appointment. First of all you announced in a press release that he was to be appointed as your senior planning adviser. We now find that a different...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Mike Tuffrey (AM): I would like two quick commitments from you if I may. In relation to the Patience Wheatcroft inquiry, has she been given the work that this Assembly did on the matters before?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Len Duvall (AM): On the Simon Milton issue it is just a litany of changes; ducking and diving, whispering. We have now got this informal process. Quite frankly, if you bring outsiders in... - then there are rules that you have to follow. Will you follow those rules, if we establish those rules, of good practice and good governance, because at the moment we are not seeing that?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 21 May 2008

Tony Arbour (AM): One of your principal platforms was that City Hall and TfL was going to get off people's backs. Nothing is more irritating to local residents than somebody in this building or somebody at TfL deciding where bus stops should be provided. Will you devolve that irksome decision to the boroughs?

• 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...