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

British Waterways Board has, I think, done a lot of good work in London, particularly promoting regeneration. There have been a number of transfer stations installed on the canal network, but I did not have the benefit, which you obviously pleasurably did have of sleeping with Jenny's (Jones) report under my pillow. Nonetheless, it seems to me pretty obvious that it would be sensible for British Waterways as another public body to accept that the Mayor should be consulted on the possible designation of wharves on the canal network in London, because if we are not careful, they are going...

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

I take your point about time and skills and so on, but the fact is things are happening at the moment which will make it more and more difficult to actually achieve some of these objectives, and so there is a feeling of urgency. You may or may not know that there is a fair amount of ill will amongst quite a lot of the people who are involved in the whole process, and I think it is urgent that this is mocked up as fast as possible and things do get going. We are going to lose even more...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

With Christmas coming, we clearly need to keep the cross-party love-in going for as long as we can, and from our side, we too see potential here. I think there are 18 London boroughs that actually border on the River Thames, so there is clearly potential, if these practicalities can be overcome, to transfer the waste through the canals, onto the river, and out to our good friends in Essex. However, when I started looking into this, as to what is the current position, I had some difficulty. Capitalwastefacts.com, which is a Mayoral London Remade website says that 16% is...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 15 December 2004

Well, that makes my point very conveniently. Could I suggest that you ask your officials to get it straight as to what is the current position, and then would you see your way to adding a specific target to the Municipal Waste Strategy, because I think until we have a percentage in mind, it is very hard to drive progress, and while the Waste Strategy, talks about the desirability of this, which we would all agree with, it would help if there were some background and an actual target with a timeline.

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

Well, the Greens on the London Assembly have put together a superb report on the canal.

• 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?