• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

Does that mean you would like to see Urban Parish Councils?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

That answer will come as an enormous disappointment to residents of Greater London. You will know that one of the principal objections to the current planning system is that the only person who can appeal against a decision they don't like is the applicant. Local communities might rise up in great numbers and oppose what has been said but they have no right of appeal. For you to say to then, as you have just done, that you think that this will improve local rights is really to buck the question. What you ought to have done, to show that...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

I agree that the planning system needs to take a strategic view and it shouldn't just be about NIMBYism, but does not your answer to that question, the incompatibility between right of appeal for one set but not for the other, does that not illustrate the whole problem with the green paper? Many fear that talking about speeding up the process is going to favour the developers over local communities time and time again.

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

On the third party rights of appeal you argued that having a directly elected Mayor who could face the electorate was a far more accountable way of doing it. The Government made similar arguments in the green paper, arguing that giving a third party right of appeal would undermine the democratic accountability of elected Councillors. But surely the logic of that argument is that there should be no right of appeal to anyone at all. Why should developers have the right of appeal, if third parties can't?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

I was going to invite you to join in the condemnation of the hypocrisy of the Conservatives in posturing the "give the people a say" but then resisting giving the people a say in the regional tier because they oppose effective regional governments. But I won't say that because Nikki has helpfully elevated the tone. I will make the point and respond to your comment on Liberal Democrat policy. It is indeed Lib Dem policy to try and get local decisions made as locally as possible, but absolutely within an appropriate framework so that you don't get NIMBYism and the...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Thank you for that and if I can be kept informed of that. It's just to say that we are always going to hear about the murder and the sort of, if you like, gross end of the treatment of children. But what we don't hear a lot about is actually the work that is done about those children who flee their home, and that's the majority of children. I'm not trying to compare, but in fact we will know more about, if you like, one or two murders that have taken place, and there's only two murders over the...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

This isn't doom and gloom; these are the problems of success, in a sense, that there is extensive construction going on, not just in the transport section but wider, partly fuelled by the growth in public spending overall. You might not be aware that the DTI has a State of the Construction Industry report which highlights skills shortages in standard building trade skills and related professional skills. The list you have read out were mainly technical railway-type skills; is there not also a concern about wider construction skills?

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

Will you do two things: in relation to the LDA, will you ask them to do a specific study of the needs in the construction industry in relation to the London Plan's Spatial Development Strategy, because that plans for a major increase in construction and the current reading is that the construction industry couldn't cope? Will you get the LDA to look at that specifically and come forward with an action plan? Secondly, will you use your position as Mayor to get the construction industry round the table with you because they have a responsibility - you mentioned the modern...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

The question I have leads on from the whole of the debate up till now. We are moving away from consultation in any form of local government to using participation. In terms of bus routes going down certain streets, whilst I completely take on board the issue that you raise about strategy and where buses need to go, the very question that Elizabeth Howlett raised about the G1 bus was brought to you two years ago, and we have a commitment that we're looking at smaller, neater buses that go down that road. We have got clear evidence on the...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

you are proposing that the TfL should produce a toolkit to help them consult better and to set out the standards that are expected, and so forth; that's welcome. Would you commit to consult on the contents of that toolkit before it is brought into play?