• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

In one sense I have some sympathy for the Mayor for once if you look at the history of this: the Government's disaster Millennium Eve and then it dumping 2001 on the Mayor and that all collapsing, nothing to do with the Mayor but to do with the Government, and then the last two years criticised in the press for nothing happening and this year decides to do something. But, to be honest, Mr Mayor, it does cause serious questions, as you have seen from all sides, that we are 23 days from the event and you have now said...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

You are answering a different question. We have been advised that your officers were asked to indicate which parts of the Mayoral Approval Form were Mayoral advice. It should not be up to them to decide that because they are part of the executive role. It should be part of the role of the Monitoring Officer. I think you are getting confused here.

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Can you not understand that after all the safety fears around the Millennium New Year's event and the fiasco of the non-event in 2000, from our side we feel you have had three years to plan an effective and fitting celebration for the New Year's holiday? Our fear is this is going to turn into a very expensive damp squib, and the fact that you will not give us the information leads us to conclude that you are simply covering up what may prove to be a muddle and a mess. There is one way out of it now and...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

All of which you seem to just ignore and not pay the slightest bit of attention to helpful advice from us. It is not surprising that we have to ask awkward questions when you wilfully ignore helpful and positive advice. You said that the costs for policing are not confirmed. Last week, when Sir John Stevens (Commissioner, Metropolitan Police Service) was before us with the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), he was careful, as one would expect, but very clear about the fact that he did not know what was planned for New Year's Eve and, therefore, he...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

I do not know if you can answer this. Have you had talks with the financial backers of London Regional Metro?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Could you quantify how much you believe needs to be raised from the private sector?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

What it comes down to is that there is still a lot of talking going on then. Can I just remind you about this? Do you recall that on 18 January of this year, Crossrail announced that they had made significant progress and announced the fact that they had made a number of appointments. They had appointed over 200 people. On 9 March you announced that you expected the work on Crossrail to commence in the summer of 2004 and you had found a means of reducing the cost of the project from £10 billion to £7 billion. What has...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

Would you then not agree that perhaps one of the biggest and most effective Christmas presents this Assembly could give to London would be if yourself and Tony Arbour could snuggle up under the Christmas tree and find a more consensual way of resolving this rather than through the local newspapers and London newspapers in west London? I sense that it is giving the very ammunition you talk about for other people to shoot down this proposal.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

What about south west London?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 17 December 2003

I think we should remind ourselves that the private sector is not the fairy on top of the Christmas Tree and if there is private sector funding towards this it will be based on a return on the money they have put up. What we are talking about is a way in which this deal is structured which involves the banks and the corporations in the City alongside Government planners. Potentially, travellers will have to pay this back through part of the fare income on the concession. There is no free lunch in this, but it is an interesting discussion...