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

I have a couple of technical questions really. The LDA mentioned when they were here last week that they were going to fund over three years. Are they just going to take the original £20 million and use it for three years rather than two years, or is there a bit more money in the pipeline?

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

This is an area where there is absolutely no dispute between the Assembly and yourself. Will you ask your officers to make sure that each Assembly Member is copied in to the work that is going on? I am finding it difficult to get this information and if I am finding it difficult I do not know what others are finding. It should not be the case. We are out there advocating this and we are meeting people who want this service. Will you instruct your officers to circulate the information as soon as possible?

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

I welcome the proposals on this particular issue for youth funding. The frustration I feel, and I am sure most of us would feel, is to see school and college buildings and playing fields empty outside of the hours in which those schools or colleges operate. One of the issues that does arise is the sheer cost of using those premises for the voluntary sector or the restrictive practices that are in place through either insurance means or other. How are you going to combat that when we have these buildings already in place?

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

You have made that point and I recognise it. What I am saying is why did you single out the double-decker bus as being a particularly dangerous vehicle in the event of a fire? The logic would then follow that you are suggesting they are more dangerous than other vehicles. If so, why are you hanging on to any of them? I just wonder why you singled out the double-decker.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

Thank you, Mr Mayor, for focusing on the tragic accident which occurred on the number 25 route in my constituency. It was absolutely horrific. You are right, there are a number of fatalities across London involving the bus service, unfortunately, but in a large city perhaps you expect that to some extent. In this case, however, someone was trapped beneath the vehicle for a distance of up to a mile, which is horrific. I look forward to seeing the results of the investigation as to why that happened. We had a case in Ilford a week before where a bendy...

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

Given your remarks just a minute or two ago about the danger that might occur were a fire to break out on a double-decker bus, is that an argument for getting rid of all double-deckers?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 October 2007

I was just going to make the point that by and large Transport for London discourages articulated vehicles from coming into London, does it not?

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

Can I ask you to reconsider and to give disabled sport the same amount of money as able-bodied sports?

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

You are quite right; in my constituency I know of about three or four bus accidents over the years where there was hardly any mention of them. Is there anything that we can do to dampen this hostility that there clearly is in the media about the bendy bus? As you said, the furore sadly that we have seen was not about the fatality but about the bendy bus.

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

Certainly I do not imagine anyone here will not send their condolences to the families for their loss. You have said that you are going to be sending that information to the Assembly's Transport Committee, which sounds a very good idea, but will you also be making the investigation report public? It would be useful if that information was available so that people could understand more of the background to the accident.