• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

I am spending an inordinate amount of my time on Radio Shropshire, where one poor guy has received so many demands, never been to London - same old story. Even after selling his car, he continuously gets erroneous penalty notices. He is not alone; I know of a woman in Oxford. He was articulate and a lawyer and threatened legal action. She was a little old lady in Oxford - very vulnerable. It is unacceptable, both in terms of the aggravation and worry you give to vulnerable people and the time taken by almost anyone who tries to deal with...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Would you agree that a £31 million bail-out is not going to be much help to that lady for that sort of service?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Another example of that is demonstrated by a constituent of mine, who took from 1 May to 23 December to resolve the problems over her registration for a Blue Badge discount, culminating in a letter of apology on 23 December from a named officer of Capita; only to find that on 2 January this year the same officer sent a letter saying that she had not submitted the correct forms for registration and in fact giving the wrong date for the registration, which was previously the only bit of information they got right. There has got to be something seriously...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Chair, maybe we could have cross-party support and a few people from the Transport Committee to do a constructive response to you to give you an insight of how we see it and some of the problems we see from this side of the table.

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Can I just clarify? The issue is lack of knowledge of the staff dealing with the issues. It is not just Capita, but also in the appeals process outside that. The poor standards of customer care, which are becoming so obvious now, of trying to get through. This is not something to give a few months to; this is something that has been there from the beginning. There is no excuse for poor customer care. We have heard it earlier in terms of some " not all " of our bus drivers. It is a real issue, because it does...

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

I totally agree with you and everyone around this table would say it is a very difficult contract, but actually answering the phone, following procedure notes, getting people being nice to them and giving the right information over the phone is something that is not difficult. It should have settled down now. That is not the case. This is basic stuff about customer care. That is something that Capita, or any contractor, or even TfL, should be able to deal with, and we should not run away from the idea. It is about management; and it is about how do...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Tomorrow, at your Surface Transport Panel at Transport for London there is going to be a discussion around future measures for siting traffic signals in Boroughs and the conflict there has been between Transport for London and boroughs over priorities up to that point. Can you just update us on what the situation is and how you are going to be satisfying Boroughs' concerns?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004

Lynne Featherstone (AM): I went to the Angel junction with Bridget Fox, who is an executive member on Islington Council. It is one of the most dangerous junctions I have ever seen. Myself and Bridget (Fox) nearly got killed a number of times, which would please everybody no doubt, because there is almost no safe phase when you cross. But the answer from TfL at that point was that everyone knows about the junction; it is well known for being a dangerous junction. But my understanding is that they said there is nothing much they can do about it. I...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 14 January 2004