• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Beyond some of the sniggering and sneering, can I suggest that there is a serious point that is being missed here, Mr Mayor, and perhaps in some cases a bit of a geographic anomaly. You will know that in the southern part of the London Borough of Bromley there is a ward which is so rural in nature that it only returns one councillor and that is an area where I think we have got something in the order of a dozen farms, most of which have horseboxes of one kind or another, and there are a number of riding...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Well it is not exactly as though you are talking about a lot of vehicles. What we are talking about is the transportation of horses within the Low Emission Zone, mainly at weekends, by people who attend equestrian events which would fall within the Low Emission Zone. We are talking about a small number of vehicles here, but by disqualifying them from coming into the Low Emission Zone, you are going to have a huge effect on horse riding and equestrian eventing. It is totally disproportionate. For example, Upminster Riding Club has been established for 40 years and they hold...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

My information is that to upgrade a horsebox would be in the region of about £4,000, which is no inconsiderable sum. In fact one of my correspondents has a horsebox, a 1985 model, which she says could not be upgraded anyway and she would have to buy a new one. The point is that this will have a disproportionate effect on these people if they cannot move their horses, and it will just simply escalate. You will find that equestrian events are not being held, the places will close as a result of it and I think that would be...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

No, I suspect you have not owned a horse, Mr Mayor. A lot of these horses are actually shared between a number of different people and the cost does not always fall on just one person.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

These questions related to correspondence which I know that you have had from my constituents who live in Malden Rushett, which is the most south-westerly part of London, one of which related to somebody whose farm is split by the LEZ simply because you have not chosen to put the whole of Greater London in it, which is in itself an anomaly. These people have very particular problems; they are the only customers for people from outside, like the knacker for example, and I think that this is quite a serious matter for farmers where the knacker has to come...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Just to correct the figures, it was a combination of three sources of funding; some was Government funding and some was council resources, but also the receipts they received from Dolphin Square, which is obviously a one-off. I just think it is very telling that we have come full circle with council housing where it is more financially viable to buy up the `right to buy' old council estates rather than build new stuff. I just thought it may have implications across a whole host of local authorities as well as your strategy. Whilst it is focused on temporary housing...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

I am glad to hear that because one of the things I have found going round as a London-wide Assembly Member is that this comes up quite regularly. For example, during the summer I went to a West Hampstead Amenity Society meeting at the library there and it was one of the demands that they emphasised with the overground rail and that Hampstead Heath should really be in Zone 2. Then only on Monday night at Brick Lane I heard the demands again about Aldgate East being made into Brick Lane. Whatever the case, I think there are genuine issues...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Will you undertake not to give public money to the opponents of this scheme in the future?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Obviously you will understand that some of us in East London will be frustrated at that delay. Two reasons: one, because a lot of us would like the bridge to be built, and two because it maintains a blight, if you like, while there is uncertainty about whether or not it will be built. I think it is worth reminding ourselves that back in the mists of time when Len [Duvall AM] was the Leader of Greenwich and I think when I was still Leader at Tower Hamlets, the boroughs in East London achieved a consensus about crossings in East...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Do you know how much it is going to cost overall to fight this case out now that the situation has developed?