• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

Can we, therefore, help sponsor a Private Member's Bill?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

That's very helpful. I don't know if you are aware, but there is a second reading of a Ten Minute Rule Bill going through Parliament at the moment, which Joan Ryan, the MP for Enfield North, is backing. This bill is looking at stopping the sale of fireworks to the public - exactly as you have recommended - and making sure that the person who buys has to be licensed. That's had a lot of support from MPs and many of my constituents, and maybe this is something that the Mayor and the GLA should give their backing to.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

Can I move you on to a slightly different part of your report? It's in connection with the Westminster City Council's hope to get a judicial review. I think they have got one actually.

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

Does the government's continued failure on this major scheme in London convince you of the need to be back in the Labour party or to stay out of it as an independent?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

I think there are a whole raft of concerns about the go live date, which really are substance based, but in terms of the judicial review I would have thought you had nothing much to fear because I believe that you have consulted very rigorously and you've also been through an extensive scrutiny of this Assembly, which has put certain caveats. But I would suggest, Mayor, that the reason for the Conservatives in Westminster seeking a judicial review, are spurious. Would you not agree that, given they were willing to drop their request for a judicial review on the basis...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

But you are banking on the fact they will continue to make those journeys. That's why you're going to get up to 50% of your revenue from these local journeys. The point I'd make is simply that these are clearly journeys they're not going to give up, which is why you're banking on them; they are journeys of local necessity like going to school, like the weekly shop at the supermarket. Now, of course, the point is that anywhere else in London people can make those journeys for absolutely no extra cost. What you're effectively saying is you're putting a...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

One of the most interesting discoveries that Westminster City Council has made in looking through the various documentation that's been made available to them as part of the process by Transport for London is a discovery that the single largest group that are going to be contributing to your congestion tax are people living on or just around the boundary. According to TfL's own calculation, somewhere between 40% and 50% of the tax raised is going to be coming from the people who live local to the boundary; not, as we've all been led to believe, the mythical wicked selfish...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

Just one matter that arises from the Mayor's recent comment a few moments ago. He referred to polls favourable to the congestion charge. Would you agree that the results you get out of a poll often depends upon how honest you are about the proposition? Would you think you would get the same results if you were to paint the congestion charge in the real terms, namely that: · As a means of reducing congestion it will, if it succeeds, kill itself as a means ultimately of raising revenue? · That, as a means of reducing discretionary journeys into London...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

I don't think people have yet realised quite how ugly your 28-foot TV gantries for the congestion charge are and that will become an issue, I think, in the London media in the coming months, but our party conditionally support you on this. What I'm concerned about is the Westminster issue because it's clearly important that, if there are important issues, they be tested in the courts - that's established in the English constitutional system - and it's pretty important that they be tested sooner rather than later so that if it does cause problems, TfL and GLA can deal...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 22 May 2002

I just want to say that as Chair of the Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee I issued a comment and those comments were in line with what the Mayor has said. It's clearly the view of Londoners, that they see this as an important development within a key area of London, that the home of football clearly belongs at Wembley and that the time for action is well overdue. We would like the programme to start as soon as possible. So I know that certainly from my party this is the position and I know that members of the...