• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

The fundamental flaw within this regulatory regime, or any other regulatory regime which you might like to impose, is that the contracts are badly constructed because they reward the operators for the number of kilometre miles that they run regardless of how many people are on the bus or whether the bus is empty, rather than making sure that the operators are rewarded for the number of bottoms they can attract to sit upon the seats. Until you get that right you will never get value for money.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

If there was a deregulated bus environment in London, do you think it would be possible for us to enforce factors such as wheelchair ramp operation, accessibility of buses and driver training standards? Do you think we would have problems with the recruitment and retention of drivers which is what we inherited when we took on and created TfL in the year 2000? Do you think, in other words, that a deregulated environment is one that we should aspire to in London or is it the fact that other cities in the UK aspire to a London-type system?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

No, I understand that, but will that be rolled over?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Sorry, just to be absolutely clear; if the LDA is funding for three years, at the end of the three years does that equal £60 million?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Mayor, as you know, we have students here today with us from Leyton and Barnet colleges. What work is being done with the colleges in terms of helping to provide more youth provision within college sites? It sometimes seems to me that a lot of the focus is on areas away from where students are. If we look at where students are at the moment they are in colleges and they are in schools. How much money will be targeted towards those centres?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

One of the indicators in your targeted offer is experience of previous schemes in the borough. My concern here is: will that discriminate against boroughs who currently have very little youth provision and who are perhaps the boroughs that need it more than the boroughs that have lots of youth provision?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

The number of injuries and collisions with pedestrians and cyclists which, when we last looked, was three times as high as with double-deckers, and the level of fare evasion on bendy buses. It would be useful to see if anything has helped to bring those figures down too.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

You mentioned that you would be providing the information on fatalities, which is obviously a factor when we look at bendy buses. If it was the only factor we would be banning police cars because we would find that the number of fatalities involved with police cars is higher than anything else! Will you be prepared to provide other statistical information about bendy buses?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Can I ask you one other question. Your figures for fatalities go back to 1994, you said, and you have also made the point in introducing those figures about the various campaigns that may be taken on by your political opponents. Boris Johnson is well known for wanting to reintroduce a form of the Routemaster and he does not like bendy buses, like so many of us. You were a great champion of the Routemaster right up to and including your first mayoral election campaign. Given that you would have known about those figures from 1994, why were you still...

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Will you accept it may be that some of the routes are just not suitable for bendy buses?