• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

Can I move on? On congestion charging: wish it well, hope, believe it may work but my fingers are slightly crossed behind my back. When you say IT, there are issues that we have raised continually. IT may not have slipped but it may slip up so I wouldn't be too confident on the IT side of the project yet. What I did want to say is that given that I think there will be some challenges and some problems, even though it will work, I don't see in this budget - and could you explain to me - where...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

A little one. We surveyed your survey. Ken, the point is that your survey was flawed so we've conducted a small survey on your survey.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

We'll see. I don't think prudence has changed through that part of the budget. Secondly, we did a survey of 500 people in west London on the Ealing tram, and 83.5% of the people responding are completely and utterly against the tram. So, at £18.6 million, whilst I adore trams, perhaps this isn't the right place to be putting your money, on this project. It simply doesn't have the support and there may be a better place to put a tram.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

I have asked you about Safe Routes to School before now and that would cost £65 million, that's for every single school in London. At the rate that you're financing it, it's going to take 20 years for every child in London to have that safe route to school. I think that's ignoring your responsibility to the future of London.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

There are four headings in the TfL budget where you admit to having a large underspend this year and yet you are asking for increased money for those budgets for next year. To me, that demonstrates poor budgeting, irresponsible planning and I want to be reassured that you're not simply being greedy and padding your budget, which I think you are doing.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

Good morning, gentlemen. The thing that I'm very concerned about is that we seem to endlessly find huge amounts of money for big projects and yet consistently find it absolutely impossible to do those smaller scale human projects that would actually make a difference to ordinary Londoners rather than people who are desperate to get into London from outside. My first question is, apart from building the Coulsdon by-pass at a cost of £28 million, and giving the go ahead to the upgrading of the A13, which is £200 million, and then proposing to build two new road river crossings...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

Thank you for that. I don't think that's an answer. I have promised people that I might not be able to cut tax but, after you, I will definitely be able to cut waste. Could we have an answer to the question, please?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

Just taking us back to the centre of TfL for a moment, your plans for the future of Transport for London require seven different marketing and communications departments. Don't you think that's a recipe for waste and muddle?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

Yes, there are certain lessons we shouldn't learn from New York. Finally, police overtime, which is, as we know, another running issue. What can you do - I am addressing this specifically to the Mayor - to persuade the MPS to seek to reduce that overtime figure?

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 22 January 2003

You mentioned in your introduction the balance between traditional officers and PCSOs. You didn't mention the balance between uniformed officers and PCSOs and civilians and that's been another debate which has been going on. At the same MQT you said, on the question of civilianisation, 'It would be absolutely mad for me to announce what we're doing before we've had the debate about that and developed the sophisticated techniques we want to see' I understand that the budget reflects the proportion of civilian staff to uniformed officers, which has been traditional - Ian Blair is nodding so I think we...