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

Therefore, it is no good in future saying, 'I do not know about that,' or 'I did not write it,' or 'I did not see it. It is nothing to do with me.'

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

Does not that and the string of answers that we have had in the course of this morning display the most extraordinarily cavalier approach to your personal responsibility as Mayor, as the chief executive, in effect, elected of this Authority, to make sure that you take personal charge of what is issued in your name and in this Authority's name?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Can I go back to your first answer, Mr Mayor, rather than the content of this particular article? Can I ask you to clarify who has the final say on what appears in The Londoner, or in other words, who has editorial control of it?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

They totally created the problem. It is entirely of their own making.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Can you raise this issue with Lewisham, then, a) about your concerns over the lack of leisure facilities for three years, and b) about looking at sensible options for alternative sites for new schools?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

We have put forward alternative sites, which they refuse to take up.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I totally agree with you that there is a desperate need for a new school, and that is what Opposition councillors in Lewisham have been saying for years, and that is why Opposition councillors and Opposition parties opposed Labour's decision to close a school. It was only when they demolished a school that they realised, then, that there was shortage of places. I mean, what barmy thought-process they went through, I do not know. Opposition councillors did get together and put forward alternative sites for a new school, which Labour have clearly failed to listen to. I would hope that...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Well, residents will be left for at least three years without any leisure facilities in the centre of Lewisham, and it is not practical to suggest that everyone can just go off to the south of Lewisham to go swimming. There is huge concern and huge opposition about this in Lewisham, and it does seem to clearly contradict the policies in your London Plan about the need to ensure local sports facilities. Going for three years without this facility, I think, is unacceptable. You said before in response to the question about post offices that, where it clearly contradicted the...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

You have had four years to build capacity now.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

In previous budget debates, you have been reluctant to consider a significant increase in spending on the environment, in spite of, I think, repeated requests from the Greens each year. Does the introduction of this Climate Change Agency signal a re-think in that area?