• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Could I be the first Assembly Member to publicly congratulate Angie Bray and her inclusion on the top-100 Tory candidates' list for parachuting in to a winnable seat? I suspect that the other parties on the Assembly would be very happy to wish her a speedy and thorough journey for two reasons. The first is that we might refresh our representation here of course, as much as we love Angie. The second is that if the logic that she has applied as a key leading member of London's Tory Party on the Congestion Charge and the tram and so on...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I have a further question. Can we look at the example of Capital Standards, where I think I am right in saying that the only boroughs that refused to sign up to Capital Standards before the election were Conservative boroughs. Given that there are a number of new Conservative boroughs, some of which are signed up to Capital Standards, would you think that the new `vote blue, get green' strategy means that they will continue to participate and support that scheme and encourage the remaining boroughs to sign up to it?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Indeed, Angie (Bray) then said, 'we continue to rigorously oppose both the central Congestion Charging Zone and the western extension'. I guess what is interesting about that is if the Tory Party supports the principle of a Congestion Charge but then finds that the only real example of it in the whole country is one that they cannot support, then that begs the question of what the hell they are talking about. I suppose the question is whether they could ever offer leadership, which means offering people hard decisions with hard choices, or whether forever they are going to be...

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I think the challenge to ultimately unsustainable policies like the Congestion Charge comes from within. You made a challenge recently when you said, `If anybody does want to get rid of it, then I challenge you. Let us have a month without it and go back to the way we were before.' Therefore, we would challenge you for this August to suspend it for that time, because the number of tourist industries, the number of small shops, small and medium-sized enterprises that are complaining about the impact of the Congestion Charge is growing all the time. These people feel they...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Of course, Westminster is one of the leading boroughs in terms of LEZs, so I do not think they need to take any lessons from you on that. Of course, your Congestion Charge is not tax-neutral, is it? It is an extra imposition on top of what people are already paying for their costs to motor. Is it not true that until such time as you get control, which the Treasury now enjoys, of things like fuel tax, it will always remain extra to other motoring taxes and therefore is unlikely ever to be tax-neutral?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

However, let me move on and ask you whether or not you would accept the description actually made of your Congestion Charge scheme by John Dawson of the Automobile Association (AA), who I think is a fairly senior expert on traffic matters, that what you are actually doing with your Congestion Charge is not road-user pricing, it is actually a permit system whereby you simply pay a flat rate to go into a particularly designated part of London and then regardless of how many times you go in and out, regardless of which roads you use, regardless of which roads...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

It is a shame that there is so little in the way of revenue compared to what was predicted that it really is a bit meaningless, I suspect.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Would you anticipate a refreshing new line of thinking on the Low Emission Zone (LEZ)?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

I am just as happy to get this on the record, so you would accept that while we as a party have never been opposed to road-user pricing policies and are interested in looking at them, your Congestion Charge system does not actually meet that particular description and therefore it is quite wrong to paint us as somehow opposing or doing a u-turn on our traditionally Conservative principles.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 April 2006

Can I just ask how the offer of cheap oil for London fits in with your energy strategy, which rightly takes a very strong stance on tackling fuel poverty, which is crucially important, but sees the means of achieving that through energy efficiency and the rapid promotion of renewables rather than cheap oil?