• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

That would be very good news for places like the Lawdon Estate in Croydon because it would mean the resources would be freed to have policing late in the evenings in those estates as well as in the centre of Croydon. Turning to the two unfortunate riots in Croydon, which were to some extent football-related, and I am sure you have much sympathy for the police because many officers were injured. I do not know whether you receive briefings on these matters, but it seems that there was really no intelligence available to the police that there would be the...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

I note that the resource allocation formula is to be reviewed later this year. Can you let us know what factors you think should be important in that allocation and whether you would be able to suggest that secondary school schoolchildren numbers should be reflected, especially so that we can tap the extra resources into the Safer Schools Programme?

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

I am very pleased to hear that you would have support for a change in the formula when so many suburban and night time economies have seen such a huge growth. Last night I was at a meeting where residents from the Lawdon Estate (in Shirley) felt that one of the impacts of dealing with night time economies is that there is very little policing taking place outside these town centres. So I am very pleased to hear you will support it. How will you undertake the lobbying of the MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority) to change this formula?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

So it is a blank cheque?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Are you aware of the woeful consultation conducted by the SRA over the Integrated Kent Franchise? You alluded to this earlier. Their programme of cuts for the south-east London community is not just in my own constituency in Greenwich and Lewisham but also Bob Neill's (Assembly Member) in Bexley and Bromley. Is there any hope of improving consultation arrangements? Can TfL or your good offices, or whatever body replaces the SRA in the future, sort this out? It is causing mayhem and misery when people only found out there was consultation a day before the closure of consultation taking place...

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

Londoners in my constituency will welcome your statements about the North London Line, but they would also welcome your support for Finsbury Park Station. We currently have £5 million of TfL money sitting and waiting for the SRA to match it so that crucial work can be done at Finsbury Park, a station that you know is quite unsafe and hostile at night, but it is a key transport interchange. What can you do about that?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

What direction will you be giving the rail operators on transport policing?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Clearly, the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has been failing London. What proposals have been made with regard to a London regional rail authority?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Of course, I understand your desire as a regional politician to expand your empire and take on the power to control more things, no doubt for the good of Londoners. Our experience of taking responsibilities from Government is that they inevitably come with a bill that Londoners have to pay in the end. Have you costed your proposal for a regional rail authority and, if so, how much would it cost Londoners?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 July 2004

Have you actually costed it and worked out how much it would cost Londoners and how much it would put on the Council Tax? As a responsible politician who bears in mind the consequences of the decisions you make, I would have expected you to do that.