• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Samantha Heath: You actually have six on the roll for biodiversity. The Mayor: One is producing it. Samantha Heath: Anyway, going on from that, it is not simply a question of resources: it is also programming and planning. Way back last year, we were told that it would be published on 11 July. Then we were told, on 11 April; then we were told, on 8 May; then we were told, on 21 November. You did not have the courtesy to tell us it had been postponed into February, and now it is to be May. It is not just...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Rather than sticks and carrots, Ken, can I talk about bulldozers for a minute? I was present at a very broadly based community meeting in Kennington and Vauxhall on Monday night. Two thirds of the community there - most of them chairs of residents' associations and so forth - expressed support for congestion charging at the beginning of the meeting. By the end of the meeting, I think as a result of their deep sense that TfL does not listen to local communities and is not interested and probably will not change very much, people were walking out. Are you...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Samantha Heath: I was not going to ask, but I would like to invite you to travel on the bus with me in the morning, which is the most awful experience. Andrew Pelling: Don't put yourself down, Sam. [Laughter.] Samantha Heath: Earlier you referred to other commitments and other obligations and powers you would like to have. I would like to concentrate on what statutory obligations you currently have. For the first time, in the Evening Standard on 9 October, I read that the Noise Strategy is going to be postponed into the next year. The last time we heard...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

So you are happy to accept that the congestion charge has been a little single-focused in terms of its priority, against other measures that might complement it?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

On the question of congestion charging and carrot or stick, the Tories requested that we have a look at alternatives to congestion charging, or reasons for not having it. In early January, we will be having a half-day seminar which looks around the world and invites people in to discuss alternatives. There is a view more or less across the parties that the congestion charge might be enhanced by alternatives and added to by what you have termed "Jenny's document" - actually, it was published in the New Statesman, and we probably all picked up on it. Arising from that...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

But we made no decision on and no changes to that element of the Budget. Let us get it clear on the record that you are not describing it as it was: when it came to the Budget last year, we made no changes or recommendations on what you had said. This was your decision, and it was not an Assembly input that changed it.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

So you are happy to accept that the congestion charge has been a little single-focused in terms of its priority, against other measures that might complement it?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Anyway, going on from that, it is not simply a question of resources: it is also programming and planning. Way back last year, we were told that it would be published on 11 July. Then we were told, on 11 April; then we were told, on 8 May; then we were told, on 21 November. You did not have the courtesy to tell us it had been postponed into February, and now it is to be May. It is not just a question of resourcing: it is knowing which end is up. Do you not think that you could programme...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

Samantha Heath: I was not going to ask, but I would like to invite you to travel on the bus with me in the morning, which is the most awful experience. Andrew Pelling: Don't put yourself down, Sam. [Laughter.] Samantha Heath: Earlier you referred to other commitments and other obligations and powers you would like to have. I would like to concentrate on what statutory obligations you currently have. For the first time, in the Evening Standard on 9 October, I read that the Noise Strategy is going to be postponed into the next year. The last time we heard...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 October 2001

On the question of congestion charging and carrot or stick, the Tories requested that we have a look at alternatives to congestion charging, or reasons for not having it. In early January, we will be having a half-day seminar which looks around the world and invites people in to discuss alternatives. There is a view more or less across the parties that the congestion charge might be enhanced by alternatives and added to by what you have termed "Jenny's document" - actually, it was published in the New Statesman, and we probably all picked up on it. Arising from that...