• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

It makes the case perfectly for what the Assembly Budget Committee has been saying in terms of the need for robust tendering procedures over these sorts of events. Would you not agree that spending of this sum money on events would actually be better put into things like having a proper New Year's Eve celebration that the vast majority of Londoners could enjoy? Indeed things like Notting Hill Carnival where the participation is hugely beyond what you could engineer around a rather bogus attempt to sort of hype up Trafalgar Square?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

Earlier you said that there was an election coming and that might be the more honest answer about this event than its cost. What is the budget for this programme of events given that the original cost of this grand opening was going to be some £330,000 for one event?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

It is, but at least there was a competitive tendering process there. For this one it is not there.

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

The 5,000, which is approximately what you want, will cost about £300 million a year that equates to an additional Band D tax of £110 and that is just the extra for policing alone. How far are you willing to push the capital's taxes if the Government does not fork out?

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

So you are gambling London's future on pressure on the Government in a general election. As you said to the Budget Committee on 12 June that if the Government does not give it to us there will be a lot of pain and trouble, strikes, and demonstrations. You were asked then if you would put all this into your manifesto for election and this is your promise to the Londoners for the following year, or you have to come back and increase the Council Tax precept by some alarming figures if you are going to meet these targets. So what...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

I understand you have been lobbying Government for money for extra police officers. I think you are on record as saying you want about 34?35,000 within the next three to five years. Can you tell me who it is you are actually lobbying: the Home Secretary or the man who really runs the country, the prudent Gordon Brown? And if they will not come up with the money how far are you going to raise the Council Tax to fund these extra officers?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

But you are willing to make a commitment that they will not increase beyond inflation?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

So you are telling us that you are not going to put up bus fares or the precept to cover the costs of those extra buses.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

But how do you plan to pay for it?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 18 June 2003

You claim credit for your budget for your bus achievements but one of the things you do not often add to that is the fact the budget is spiralling out of control and we are looking at a cost of £800 million projected in 2005/2006 and no doubt on towards £1 billion after that. How do you propose to pay for that?