• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 25 February 2004

It is unusual that we get some good news out of this meeting. Certainly local residents will be pleased with what they have got from you this morning Mr Mayor. However, there will be concerns around the Romford proposal. Can I ask you to undertake a proper and detailed consultation with the people who will be affected, not only in Romford but also in the part of Dagenham which will be affected by this? Not only looking at the loss of green space, but also the potential disruption to the local community during the building work. Obviously, we are in...

• Question by: Noel Lynch
• Meeting date: 25 February 2004

I am sure the people who are here from Maylands Field will be delighted. However, the people from Romford who are going to lose a playing field and other green sites will not be pleased. My advice is that the depot at Ilford could be used. There were 38 other places rejected on what seemed to us very skimpy evidence. Locally you had a word in their ear, but we had some of your people putting up places that are in green field sites, which seems to me to be against your great ideas of protecting green field sites. Is...

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

There are a lot of cooks in this broth. But I am glad that you have clearly identified the Mayor as chief chef. The Mayor, in an answer in Mayor's Question Time on 25 February, said that the Thames Gateway was a `magical place'. I just wondered whether you knew what his magical vision was? What is he talking about? Do all of the people and all of the cooks share this vision? Could you just expand a little on this, if you are aware of it? Or is it about waving wands?

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

Following on from what Meg (Hillier) was saying, are you not worried that the UDC is going to come in and be yet another challenge for you? Is the Government trying to muscle back in somehow?

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

Quickly moving on to some of the other issues, do you think there should be more opportunities for engagement with local communities and the boroughs than there has been to date? How can you develop those opportunities for participation as the development proceeds? When you have got all these people we have been talking about, how do the normal or base levels that need to be consulted get their two pennies worth in on this at a critical stage?

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

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

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

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

I like the vision; I am just not sure that is where the wand and the magic come in " it is how you get that together. With all the agencies and all the boards and all the steering groups and all of these people, it does not seem to me that there are clear lines of responsibility as yet. I just wonder how disputes and conflicts will be resolved and, ultimately, who has sway? Can the Mayor just come in and say `because I say so"?

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

My question is to Richard (Brown). I welcome the comments you made about the fact that everything must be done to avoid Thames Gateway being `dull'. I just want to take you a bit further and say, rather than stopping it being dull, would you agree with me that perhaps one of the things that we need to see developing quite quickly, because it has not had much time spent on it, is a cultural and creative strategy for Thames Gateway, including the existing cultural infrastructure, and I would include Havering and the established centres, so that you do not...