• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

I was hoping you were going to say that you would accept our 10-point plan for putting more freight onto the canals and off London's roads. Have you looked at the 10 points, and do you agree with most of them?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

I am only squeezing in, because in my constituency, I have the Regents Canal, and of course, a lot of work is being done in this area, and I wanted to know whether or not the Mayor has had the opportunity to be briefed on the pilot ' the feasibility report, I believe, has just been circulated ' about the waste of water?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

Yes and whether he has had a chance to be briefed on that. If he has not, can he seek that briefing, and can I just also add that I would agree with him that, because of the importance of the canal, not only in terms of waste, but in terms of their part in the transport infrastructure of London, we do need to have a meeting. I would say that it is about asking other bodies, as well, which have had a longstanding interest in this matter.

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

As we are now building up big supply chains of materials, we are beginning to get in London a secondary materials economy, so what is being discussed is really important. However, the point made about sites is also very important. They are too small, and they do not come to you and me, and there is an issue about us losing sites all along the canals, and the character of the canals is being changed, as well. Therefore, it is very important, I think, that we review the guidelines for the canals, and we also resuscitate the Canals Committee, which...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

You talked about Peter Hendy meeting with British Waterways in January, but could we perhaps all sit down and actually go through this, either at about the same time or very soon afterwards, so we that can get going on it, basically?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

I think this follows very neatly from the previous question from Jennette Arnold, because I think Londoners expect there to be more serious sanctions against people who misbehave publicly, and as we found with the TOCU, people who avoid their fares very often will be the same sorts of people who do not have a sense of good behaviour on public transport and possibly cause problems elsewhere in the public realm, so people expect greater enforcement, but clearly, we are not going to employ thousands and thousands of additional inspectors. The fear or the risk of being caught and of...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

Well, there are a lot of low-income people who do evade fares or cannot pay for them, but unfortunately, I sometimes have to sit on a TfL court ' which I hate ' and your prosecutor charges £120 fine plus £50, so for evasion of a £2 fare, which they cannot pay, they walk out of court with £170. Then the court has to chase after them. I think it is iniquitous what TfL impose.

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

The trouble is, if they cannot pay on the spot, they end up in courts, and as you say, sometimes, they have mistaken their route.

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

My key concern is about the mismatch ' I think everybody shares this ' between the improving safety standards we now have on the buses and the Underground and the appalling situation on the overground system. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) came to see me recently, and they are briefing against the Rail White Paper. In particular, they are briefing against the proposal that London should have more responsibility for franchising overground rail in London. They seem completely unaware of the inadequate customer services on the issue of safety that many train operators and stations are operating in...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

Do you think it is possible that the long battle for adequate funding the BTP have fought to get sufficient money out of the train operators could have something to do with the fact that, essentially, the train operators have a conflict of interest? One of the BTP's tasks is to investigate and pursue actions in the case of major incidents and accidents, and they may well end up investigating and pursuing action against their funders. Do you think there is a potential conflict of interest there for the train operating companies in the fact that they are required to...