• 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?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

We're not going to get an agreement on that and I think it is poor that you are not even agreeing to the little that I am asking on behalf of London's public.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

You are obfuscating because it is quite easy to distinguish what can be changed and what may affect the routing, or something, as opposed to the central problem.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

You're saying that is not the case.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

That is not what I'm asking. You are saying you are going to make the executive decision; what I am saying to you is will you make it clear, on each consultation, what can or cannot be affected by that consultation?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

You bring up, again, the subject of communicating to engage the public in response to consultation but it is quite clear, from what you've said previously on consultation and what you have said today - and it follows on from the Tories' theme questions - that you will take the decisions and if the public don't like them, they can throw you out in May 2004, which, the way you're going, could actually happen. Your attitude is clearly colouring Transport for London's approach to all of this, to consultations and communications; it is cavalier and it is contemptuous. It is...