• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

In your news statement which accompanied your announcement on 21 October you stated and it must be true because it says it there that `over the last three years TfL has shown that every penny allocated to transport in London is used efficiently and cost effectively." Do you think it is efficient and cost effective for TfL to have seven different marketing and communications departments?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

And would you not be better advised to invite the main party candidates to join you so that this is genuinely London asking for its fair share of national resources rather than Ken Livingstone and his so?called seductive skills?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Just to pursue that, all this seems to rest on your seductive skills. Given that, and I appreciate that your mission in life as you get out of bed in the morning is to bring joy into all our lives, do you think it is really helpful to have the Mayor of London talking about Gordon Brown, who is the ultimate paymaster in all this in the following terms, and I quote: `For years the Treasury has been run by aliens, whose objective is the destruction of all life on this planet, and they are just starting with local government."...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

It was the difference with Bob Kiley I was pursuing. Before I hand over to Mike, Bob Kiley was describing the funding situation as make?or?break; it is in choppy waters, heading off the cliff. So he does not quite share your confidence. On the BBC's Politics Show he said that the Thames Gateway Bridge, West London Tram and East London Line Extension would be at risk. So do you agree with your Transport Commissioner that that is a position, a `Plan B" that you are not acknowledging at the moment?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Of course, this is a complete calumny. I made the point to you that it is the District Line station which is being closed, not stations being closed. Here is a wonderful opportunity for you now as the supremo of the Underground. When I asked Crossrail why they had put in this link, the new corridor to Kingston, they said it was going to be extremely profitable. The way for you to take advantage of this in your role as Chairman of TfL would be to say why not extend the District Line to follow the particular route which Crossrail...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Of course, that answer is sheer pedantry because the District Line Stations at Kew Gardens and Richmond will close as indeed will Gunnersbury Station. Are you aware that in the leaflet which is being distributed right across the proposed Crossrail route, there is no mention, either in any figure drawing the Crossrail proposals or indeed in the text, which even hints that District Line services will be removed from those three stations? Are you aware that when I raised this matter with Tim O'Toole at the last meeting of the Transport Committee I asked him whether or not he was...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Privately, I have a grudging admiration for Tony Arbour because he is a very witty fellow who cares passionately about Richmond. But, today I think we are witnessing one of the most inept pieces of political stupidity that I have seen since coming onto the London Assembly because the extension of Crossrail to Richmond would be a massive benefit to the people who live there. An enormous benefit. They will be able to get to Bond Street in about 20 minutes and to their jobs in the West End and City. Their already massively elevated house prices will go through...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Mr Mayor, I hope that you do not mean that literally if there is any opposition from Richmond you will immediately turn away from providing what I hope you will see as a piece of work that needs to look at the quality of service, however it is badged. And perhaps the first thing to be done is some serious research into where passengers who use those services now are going to and where people who could use those stations wish to go to. Can I also ask if it is not a great prize for West London if we...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

The late Michael Young, who was of course the architect of the Labour Party's 1945 Manifesto, tried to get inserted into the Greater London Authority Act, a provision which would have allowed the formation of Urban, Town and Parish Councils in London. Would you be interested in that emerging from the review we have talked about?

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 22 October 2003

Does the Mayor agree with the boroughs that there needs to be a review of the powers and funding of quangos, such as for example the Housing Corporation in London or perhaps English Heritage in London? Does the Mayor agree with the Tories here that there should be a review of the powers and funding of the Corporation of London? Does he agree that perhaps there should be a review of the powers and operation of the Government Office for London? You just say it privately.