• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I expect they are prepared to sustain it, because they are going to charge you £270,000 per £100 million. When he came to Transport Committee, Jay Walder (Managing Director of Finance and Planning, TfL) said that borrowing from the markets will instil financial discipline in TfL, so do you believe that TfL does not actually have the financial discipline?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Okay, so they reaffirmed their AA rating, at the moment, anyway, but they have said that you have to deliver a plan which 'closes previously projected gaps and demonstrated its capacity to deal with projected increase in debt.' How did you demonstrate your gaps had been closed? Did you cut projects, or what did you do?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

In the five-year investment in the borrowing that you have raised, I wanted to know something about your dealings with the credit agencies and why did you decide to meet Standard and Poor's and Fitch. with the repayments they are going to charge you are going to cost £270,000 extra per million of borrowing than it would if you went to the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

My last question relates to your reading. Did you read about the Cutty Sark Trust, the launch of their campaign, and the need for them to' He said he was reading, and so I want to know in his reading pile, did he also read about the Cutty Sark Trust, who have unveiled their plans and really are in need of his support, I believe, so that they can raise the amount of money that is required to save this national heritage.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Then you talked about, clearly, the other big event which has taken place in the last seven days, and that is the (Olympic) bid submission. Again, we have some outstanding concerns about the images that have been used so far. Can you use your influence to ensure that we actually see a much more rounded view of London? We should be seeing more images relating to the environmental impact. We should be able to see more images of the area that is going to be the Olympic site. Can you ensure that that happens, because at the moment all we...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I will preface my three questions to the Mayor with just a little quick remark. I just think that we need to look and ask ourselves, "Why did we not get this update at the start of the meeting?" This is not an event just solely for us, but this is an event where the Mayor-Mr Mayor, you have told us that you have welcomed and you have been working hard to ensure that we get the East London Line, but can I just raise a couple of issues with you, and that is the phased approach. Certainly, members of...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Labour were making promises that they knew they could not keep in 2001.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I wanted to warmly support your comments about the Olympic bid, but I was going to suggest three further areas where we might make even greater progress in emphasising Londoners' and other people's support for the bid. The first is last week we signed a protocol with an organisation known as TELCO (The East London Community Organisation), which I think is ground-breaking. It talks about the ways in which local people will benefit from the Olympic Games in the area, through employment, training opportunity, and housing that is built on those sites. The second area is I know that there...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Can I take it, then, that you agree with the proposals to site a Super Casino in Wembley with wall-to-wall one-armed bandits that are basically going to be a process of milking the poor to fund excessive profits for those individuals that are running these casinos?

• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Thank you very much. I agree with almost everything you have said, but could I invite you ' rather than us agreeing that this unelected, £18 million a year of taxpayers' money should just be left as it is ' to take some direct action and to join with me in direct action to try to force the Government to close it down. It is a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money, and rather than huffing and puffing about it, I believe we ought to do something about it... I am suggesting that the Mayor and I might go to Downing...