• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

You are the Chairman.

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Can we expect you to come back to us within 20 working days from now?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Your office has kindly passed most of them on saying, `Thank you for being practical about it.-

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Your office has kindly passed most of them on saying, `Thank you for being practical about it.-

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

The point is that you are already on the way to achieving the 21%. Even the trend figures show that there is 2% more than the 15% we are at, so the actual £8 you are proposing is over the odds for the reduction you claim you want.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

It is also about the varying estimates for the financial benefits of the money you will raise from the Congestion Charge. In the mayoral answer you gave Andrew Pelling on 26 January 2005 you said £26 million. In an answer supplied to the Liberal Democrats by TfL Public Affairs on 10 February 2005 you were going to lose £4 million. In the consultation paper on the Mayor's budget, paragraph 2.8, the increase in net income is going to be £15 million. If TfL's credit rating depends on financial markets approving figures for the income stream, how are they going to...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

You are changing the goalposts again. What I am talking about is not the quantity of those amounts, but the fact that there is an inconsistency in your answers across those.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Another argument you made for the Charge and the bus fare rises was the standing with the credit rating agencies. Did you have actual evidence that TfL's credit rating would be threatened unless you raised that extra cash?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

You know, originally you said that 15% was the optimum reduction to make London work and that would benefit congestion or travel times across London and redress the £2 million a week that it was costing businesses then. For someone like myself who actually believes it is a mechanism about pricing demand and should only be brought into play to price that demand when demand is rising, I think we just have to disagree on that. Given that you are going to make this charge, together with bus fares and Congestion Charges put together, you might get about £185 million...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 23 February 2005

Do you not think that the lack of consistency in your figures will give rise to concern amongst credit rating agencies who do have a valid interest in your ability to get answers right?