• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

I think the majority of cases are where the ramp is not working, possibly because it has got damaged hitting the kerb so more vigorous maintenance of this may well help.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Would you put it down to driving skills then and not engineering faults within the new bus fleet, because is it not the case that there is something to do with the brakes that we now have within the new fleet?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Can you assure me that this latest guide is not going to be subject to the same furore as the inappropriate guide that came out of TfL targeted at women?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Sally Hamwee (Chair): Just to explain to Roger (Evans, AM) that I thought that Jennette (Arnold, AM) might say, as I would say, that testing by people who need to use buses, including those with hearing impairments, would be a very good thing, to get users to experience and pass on their points. Roger Evans (AM): Indeed, and if you had called me when you said you were going to, I might have said it as well but I do not need to now. I am very grateful to Jennette (Arnold, AM) for raising these issues because they were highlighted...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Perhaps you could let me have the numbers. In fact, I will do you the favour of putting that question down for the next Question Time so that you can tell us whether you have completed the numbers.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Therefore why did you not have a bendy bus as TfL's float?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

I totally agree with your comments there but as you know my position with TfL is so far, so good, but I want more. Let me just share with you what I heard last week. A constituent in his 70s told me he had to go recently to Homerton Hospital after the sudden and violent braking of a bus caused him to fall over and hurt his wrist. That was not even bad enough but when he got there, staff at that hospital said to him that they were getting a number of older Londoners coming in with injuries sustained...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

Mr Mayor, would you agree with me that the points that Geoff has made are absolutely good but it is not about just dealing with one particular constituent group? Our buses must be able to accommodate the needs of people standing at bus stops, so I support your offer but this is work in progress and there should not be a bus out there that is in breach of the contract because that is what we have been working for for the last five years. It is not good enough to just say we can redesign buses for just wheelchair...

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

The question of access to local buses is still an issue and I do not know if you are aware that I get a regular daily log from a wheelchair user, which chronicles the episodes in which bus ramps have not worked or drivers have claimed they are not working. This resident, who uses buses quite frequently, says that on one occasion in four he is left at the bus stop being unable to access the bus, which is clearly a great concern. I do know that Peter Hendy (Managing Director, Surface Transport, TfL) is very keen to sort this...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 16 November 2005

You have to say they have quite good judgement in the City of London. You have just set out very interestingly it seems to me all these problems that have been well known with the Routemasters and going back to the old days when they were the main part of the fleet; 20 people a year falling off them and so on. Given all that background, how come you said only a dehumanised moron would get rid of the Routemasters?