• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

Can we come back to the land assembly, which you have mentioned. 93 per cent of the land is now under public control. The other 7 per cent though, as was discovered when we questioned the LDA, threatens potentially 2,000 jobs, which are on that land at the moment and are yet to be re-sited or brought under public ownership. What is your stance on the jobs that will be lost if the land is not made available?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

You are expecting them to drive?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

Thank you for what you said about land acquisition. I certainly welcome the settlement that has been made with KICC, as it is within my constituency, and it is right to see fair treatment to this organisation. The concerns I have are about the smaller communities, mainly the traveller communities. I know we are down the way with the resettlement of the Hackney traveller community, they were expressing concerns to me last week about members of other traveller communities within the five Borough Zone. I want you to reaffirm your commitment to ensuring that the traveller communities will get fair...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

It is all to do with land acquisition, Chair. You can get back to us to tell us what is happening. It is the smallness of these issues that concerns me, that they will be overlooked.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

Time is dragging on. One of the key issues here is that it is not the percentage of land, it is what that land that is still under private ownership, is being used for. Quite clearly it is predominantly employment. The issue for us is are we going to see those jobs lost or are you giving a cast iron guarantee that those jobs will be saved?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

It is interesting that we moved from the Kingsway International Christian Centre to the Mosque in that last question, and I congratulate Mr Biggs on getting us that distance. I want to go back to the Christian Centre because the LDA's proposal is that this facility be moved from to Rainham in my constituency. Whilst we welcome newcomers and it is good to see them, I am surprised that the LDA is suggesting that a facility which has 8,000 worshippers be placed in a location where you refused to countenance a casino precisely because you said that public transport to...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

I am glad to see that you do publicly recognise the need for openness and transparency in decision making. In the search for a model that works, one of the things you might want to look at is the London planning process. Nobody has ever charged the examination in public process, and the procedure which goes on, which is accessible and transparent, with being a problem, and nobody has ever said that the most important planning decision you take, which is the agreement to the London Plan, is not transparent. Do you think there might be anything about the EIP...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

I think the movement in all of this is very welcome. Can I take us back a few days? You rubbished the London Councils', as I have to call them, - or the ALG as they were - original comments, particularly the poll that they carried out by NOP. I think you gave us some historical comments on that. If NOP is so untrustworthy, why is TfL still using it? Most recently, I understand on attitudes to bendy buses. How do you advise the Assembly to regard TfL's use of NOP and what we should look at, coming from that?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

Finally, how will you reach a decision on which applications you are going to look at, and which ones you will not?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

In terms of these public hearings, are you suggesting a route whereby your officers would make recommendations to you, as the planning authority as it were, for you to then confirm or otherwise those decisions? Is that the way you are envisaging it?