• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

On the same line of questioning, on this cross-cutting theme, do you not think that an approach which increases the emissions from idling car engines increases stress, increases road rage and slows down emergency vehicles, such as ambulances responding to incidents, might actually be harmful to the health of Londoners, despite the assertions of biased members of the Green Party.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

I think that actually Londoners will be interested to hear that £20 million of this so-called money that is coming towards the health of London is going straight into the Mayor's pocket. I'm not certain that's where it should be aiming. It's meant to be aiming for front-line services, I would have thought. What about the health of people living in central London, given that we've already heard from nurses that if they don't get exemptions to bring their own cars to work when they're on night shift, they're going to be applying for transfer out of the central zone...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

I wondered if you thought it good for the health of London that the National Health Service in London in a letter to us reckons the cost of the congestion charge to them is going to be somewhere near £20 million. Is that good for the health of London?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

Is the Mayor's policy of lengthening the red phases on traffic lights all over London a healthy thing to do or not?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

You mentioned earlier the low emission zone. Research suggests that that would have quite an impact on air quality in London. Do you have any further information on that?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

I will come back to walking and cycling. We all know we had the 50th anniversary of the London smog last week. The fact is that although we don't have smog anymore, we certainly do have a fairly lethal mix of toxins in the air of London, which not only triggers breathing disorders, asthma in children and so on, but also shortens our lives. What do you think in the Transport Strategy is actually going to help the quality of air in London?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

It's all very well getting people out of their cars, onto their bikes and onto walking, but if they're still going to die from toxic fumes, it actually doesn't help very much. I'm also concerned that in fact there isn't enough emphasis put on encouraging walking and cycling.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

I am just concerned - I didn't know you didn't have any input into the Air Quality Strategy, and I'm actually fairly concerned about that, because I think perhaps that might be part of your role.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

Neale, I have got a question and it is about an issue that has political support in the form of the buy-in from the Mayor but there's been little follow-up support from Transport for London. The matter I'm raising is, it's a year since the publication of the London Road Safety Plan and in the summer, I raised an issue at Mayor's Question Time, which came as a result of work that I had done with the NSPCC. That was about road fatalities and casualties. Now, although there has been an actionl point in the Plan, we've seen absolutely no...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 11 December 2002

I do hope that when the economic discussion is had on things like low emission zones, you actually come in and explain the benefit to the NHS of actually keeping people healthier, rather than poisoning them.