• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

This is a discussion about the Olympics, Mr Mayor.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

None of that is going to satisfy my constituents. We have heard that Crystal Palace is remote. Well, if Crystal Palace is remote, Malden Rushett is at the end of the earth. The residents of Malden Rushett in the Borough of Kingston upon Thames have had to pay an extra 29% increase in the precept this year. They have no Underground. There is no Underground at all in the Royal Borough of Kingston. They have not received one additional police officer. In effect, what is happening is that you are placing an ever-increasing burden on people who live in the...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

In fact, at the Finance Committee the other day, we were told that funding for police security was already factored in. Ms Cassani, I am afraid it is the police that will be doing the policing and not private security firms. There will be extra police needed. We are on a high alert for anti-terrorism and this will quite clearly continue for some time. It is silly to think that a private company is going to come in and do this. But my point, Mr Mayor, is we are not obsessed about cost, we are not mean, we actually welcome...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

I have a theory that part of what we are doing in these discussions is reaping a harvest, because we have spent the last 10 or so years attacking the transport system in London, using it as a political football. If we can get it to work properly it is actually a very good system, and I take nods of agreement as confirmation of that. So, unequivocally, we do not need any new lines in London. We need to get the ones we have at present to work properly. Is that the case?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

Can you give an unequivocal assurance that there will be no new strategic roads in the area? There might be the odd access road, possibly with the exception of the Silvertown Link and the East London River Crossing

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

So will you be publishing a benchmark, if you like, of what the service should provide for an effective Olympic Games?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

I put to you a question which worries me a little bit. Suppose I am a wealthy foreign tourist and I get into my hotel in Central London and want to attend an event at Stratford. I get on the Tube and it is a train which was built 15 years ago. It is fairly crummy, has graffiti on the windows, and the station has an overcrowding problem so I had to wait at the barriers. They may have to shut the station for a while because of overcrowding, which is a common experience. It seems to me that if...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

I want to mention the Hall Farm Curve, which is the bit that links Chingford to Stratford. Can Barry comment briefly on where plans are to fit that in? Secondly, Barbara, the IOC questionnaire asks you to detail any opposition to the bid. In my part of East London there is general support for a bid and for an Olympics. But there is an issue, and I wanted to touch on that in the next section, about transport in Hackney in particular. Hackney has suffered for a long time with very poor transport links. There is a risk that if...

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 15 October 2003

But, at the moment, there is a link and you cannot use it; there is no way in.