• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

What about when standing as an independent, then?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

However, the working of that relationship requires a degree of trust, and what trust can there be in a Mayor who said he would never stand as an independent, who said he would never put up bus and Tube fares and did?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

So you do not want them to consult Assembly Members, broadly?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

For a future comrade you have not behaved very well because you have stolen my supplementary which is about Oxford Street. So to state very clearly and very unambiguously, Simon Hughes' proposal for pedestrianising Oxford Street is a nonsense in your view and will not serve Oxford Street or solve the problems of that area.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Let us just get back to the actual question because I have to say this is a real anorak's question. Talk about the modern Ebenezer Scrooge. Instead of harkening to the sound of Christmas tills racking up lots of lovely revenue for the retail sector, Mr Biggs is more interested in counting car numbers and managing the Christmas traffic. Would you not accept that mostly the concern around Christmas traffic is the lack of it because what we have been hearing on the news around the Christmas shopping season is that shops are extremely depressed. They are having to face...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

How often do you go to Peter Jones?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Can I encourage you actually to make sure that TfL does some positive publicity work? I think traders fear that if TfL is successful in warning people that the Tube is closed people will therefore stay away from Brixton and not do their shopping in Brixton. A lot of livelihoods are dependent on this, so I think the positive publicity about Brixton still being open for business is the least that TfL can do on top of the transport support you have mentioned there.

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

When we spoke last time about Brixton Tube I think there was some understanding about the potential impact of the closure of Brixton Tube during the Christmas period on the shops. It now seems apparent that the removal of asbestos works will take place from 21 December and those are actually quite important days from the shopping point of view for the local traders and in terms of the after Christmas sales. I know TfL officers have met with Brixton businesses. Can you tell me what TfL plans to do to try and reduce the impact of the station closure...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Have you been around both recently?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

): Clearly, given the economic down turn I think a lot of shops say that they needed the Congestion Charge on top of everything else like a hole in the head. However, I am interested in what perhaps might be a little chink we are noticing opening up in the armour. Obviously, you are concerned about the damage being done to shops, which is why you might consider looking at the Congestion Charge during that important time of year. I welcome that. However, is it not also important to wait a while and look at these figures coming out of...