• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

May I assume the role of Matron, and tell you, Ken, that you must ask Derek Smith to look at the case for district nurses who are giving chemotherapy, insulin and the like, and the case for midwives. These are two groups that must be exempt. Reverting to Assembly mode, I wanted to ask how you are going to spend your pie from the congestion charge. This relates to the vulnerability to London traffic of child pedestrians, especially from ethnic minorities. Since one of the poor outcomes could be increased rat running around the built-up areas immediately surrounding the zone...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

Doesn't your experience teach you that that is naive? In the real world, if you provide a service which no one is prepared to subsidise, the only way you can cover the costs - unless you scrap the service - is by extra charging; and Londoners are going to have to bear the brunt of it.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

You have already been asked about the £1.75 billion funding gap, and you said you expected to be able to deal with it because you would get extra grant. The truth is that, so long as you are Mayor, the chances of any Government of any colour giving you extra money will be very slim. Certainly the current Government do not mind kicking you in the teeth with the sacking of Mr Kiley. With regard to the £1.75 billion, which, on the face of it, you will be able to fund only by charging Londoners more - either in fares...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

I am glad that you recognise the 24-hour dimension of most of the essential public services in London. I should have thought that there was a case for carrying out a specific impact study on the public services in London, because there will also be the issue of increased costs for services they need to buy. Is that something you might consider?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

I had a visit from the chair of one of the major hospitals inside the charging zone. She is very worried about the impact of congestion charging on staffing of the hospital and their ability to recruit and retain staff. What do you have to say to nurses and other essential workers who have to come into the centre of London about the possibility that they will need to pay another £1,000 a year in travel costs?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

It is obviously important that there are public transport improvements before the congestion charge, not only for the success of the charge itself but also because these improvements are needed anyway. There is a case also for saying that public transport will improve as a direct result of the congestion charge, once you have wiped 10% to 15% of the traffic off the roads. The problem is that this message is simply not coming across. Do you agree that you need to push it more, not just talk about the public transport improvements beforehand - welcome though they are -...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

Lynne Featherstone: You could get the idea that the Conservatives wanted to wreck the congestion charging scheme. Tony Arbour: Yes, you could. Lynne Featherstone: That is bizarre; it would be better if they acknowledged that it would happen. They sensibly signed up to the congestion charging scrutiny, which was a rigorous examination of congestion charging and of which the Mayor has now taken quite a lot of notice - although at first he was a bit reluctant to do so. The real stumbling block has always been the promise to improve public transport. You have now quantified it, in some...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

Final question, then: we can expect another very large hike in the precept next year, can we?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

And if you do not get them, of course, Londoners will also have to pay a fiver to drive their cars around, because there still will not be any of the improvements in public transport that you are promising - rather dishonestly, I suspect. You cannot guarantee that the money will come from Government, can you?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 18 July 2001

That is a nice history lesson. You are talking about these improvements you will be seeking - 40% more bus capacity by 2011; 17% more capacity on the Tube, I guess, once you have control of that - but your transport strategy also says of these proposals that you assume that funding is available. That turns it rather into a wish list, doesn't it? You also note, quite openly, in your transport strategy that, by about 2004, on the current funding available to you, you will go into a minus situation. In fact, by about 2011, you will be about...