• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

The comment which he raised was a joke. Perhaps you may begin to understand that we're getting a little bit tired of assertions repeatedly by you that what you said was a joke, and that being Mayor of London requires rather more than being a stand-up comic. Against that background, would you perhaps accept that the point that Darren Johnson was making was a serious one, namely that the Deputy Mayor's senior advisor that had said that the plan was about creating employment opportunities close to where people live, but that your economic advisor had said that it was not...

• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

I wouldn't accuse you of lacking in humour, I remember at Budget Committee where we were talking about the objectives I agreed with you, that the objectives read as Mother Pie, you summarised it. It's quite hard to disagree with the objectives which makes the delivery of the objectives all the more important. Would you agree firstly that what's important are the mechanisms for delivery, secondly the cash for delivery, knowing where the resources are going to come from and thirdly, working with the boroughs among other partners, but particularly the boroughs, because they have to incorporate this in their...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

What about the package concept?

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

Okay. It can't really play that part in the debate if you don't actually see the document. And I think we also need to see the legal advice that says that that guidance is going to be accompanying it.

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

Well I think some of us don't like the way the world is going. Some people voted for you because they thought that you shared that view. But you've referred to the importance of the supplementary planning guidance. I think in particular the supplementary planning guidance on sustainable design and construction is essential to the delivery of the plan, both for good quality urban design and to reduce the impact on the environment of the new housing which is envisaged. So, along with higher density, there has to be a very effective supplementary planning guidance in this area. Can we...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

I think this is a bit of a non-debate actually and I'm very disappointed that Victor and the Greens haven't really set out an alternative Green vision for the SDS. And I make it clear from the Labour side that on the SDS Labour members see ourselves as being broadly supportive - and you may find it surprising from me again - but broadly supportive of the SDS and we want to help you to improve it and make it effective and more responsive to the Londoners' concerns. I suppose a concern I expected Victor to raise was about the...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

I understand those difficulties and you know my views on PPP but I still think the plan is somewhat limited and lacks vision in terms of the tube. And it came to light, didn't it, at Mayor's cabinet, that the Thames Gateway, there was additional funding for the increasing capacity on the Jubilee Line of between 45% and 60% and it turned up that, when I asked how that was going to be funded outside the PPP, in fact the Government had popped it into the PPP in another late change to the clause. That's in the Government's interests because...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

I disagree with Victor's thesis that everyone can look in it and see what they want, because I looked in it and I wanted to see lots of ideas that the plan didn't achieve, and I found that the tube was conspicuous by its absence from the whole of the London plan. And so I wondered when the issue of the Tube would be properly addressed in the London plan.

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

Bob Neill cited that the plan does aim to create employment opportunities close to where people live and that was at odds with the centralisation of what you see as financial and business areas. Bob Neill: If your going to quote me what I said wast hat what your advisor had said was at odds with what John Ross, the Mayor's adviser, had said. It's the contradiction between the two of them that I was referring to. Nicky Gavron: Can we go back then to what the plan said, and the plan does say that employment opportunities should be close...

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 18 September 2002

I certainly will work on that. But important part has also been played in the drawing of this strategy by the options appraisal. And the options appraisal, if you look at that, looks at four options, one of which is completely ludicrous and two of which you are clearly not going to agree, and then it's not a surprise that you've picked the one out of the four that you wanted in the first place. That doesn't seem to be a serious option appraisal. In the second half of that document it makes some very sensible comments about the spatial...