• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

Well that is one thing, but the other thing is the total cost for people travelling in London; you see you are opening yourself to criticism that this is a scheme which is going to cost Londoners more, unless you give us some assurance about the total income that you are targeting.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

You have been talking about increasing the Charge from £8.00, which was the increase figure this year, up to £10.00, so clearly you have changed direction again. Is the total revenue you are looking for going to be totally consistent with a flat £8.00 charge or is it going to be related to an increased £10.00 charge?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

It occurs to me that there would be some small businesses with perhaps just one delivery van, and there could be a lot of damage done to small retailers who may suddenly find their vehicles do not meet with your approval. I hope you will be doing a lot of consulting with small businesses.

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

The other thing you mentioned, and when Angie (Bray) was talking about consultation, you yourself were critical of consultation processes earlier on. Is this not really going to be the case again? How on earth can you say anything different if the scheme is being worked on, it has come up very quickly and very suddenly, we knew nothing about this at all before this morning. It really could cause a hell of a lot of damage in Central London and if the consultation has effectively been decided, and if all that is going to happen is it is going...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

My final question on this is that often, if you have for example more mature children, people often need to buy the larger cars. My understanding is there are not many of those larger cars that have average, or lower than average, emissions. I am just wondering what pressure you are going to bring bear onto those car companies who draw that market?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

Thank you very much. Can we just be clear on the timetable, because now the news is out people will want as much information as they can get about this. When will you be actually publishing the different categories of vehicle and, secondly, when do you expect to make a final decision on the detail?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

Obviously one of the things you said this morning that will be of concern to some of my residents, is the idea that you might be considering actually withdrawing their discounts. In the Western Extension, where there is some dread about the arrival of your extended Congestion Charge, as you know, this could prove to be extremely scary for people who are just about to get the Congestion Charge extended there, but they have of course already bought vehicles. Presumably you will be wanting to consult very carefully with the people in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to...

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

When the Liberal Democrats proposed a scheme to increase the charge for higher polluting vehicles you have said `oh it is too difficult to do', so actually I am quite heartened by that reply.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

One of the problems with the planned Western Extension is the people who get the discount can also travel into the Central Zone, which means that there are more vehicles polluting the atmosphere. Although I certainly support the discount, don't you think it would be sensible to have discounts that apply to either the Central or the Western Zone and not both?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 12 July 2006

Finally, if the charge is going to go ahead in this manner what targets are you going to set in terms of carbon reductions. In other words, it is not some vague thing, if you are saying it is X now, the introduction of this charge from 2008 to 2012, you must have some aim in mind that it can be judged by?