• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

You have your advisers as well, and engagement in policy, which engages people as effective partners. Yes, it is about debate and disagreements, picking things up and working forward on issues we can agree on. It means that you need to have a different style of engagement in the matters you have dealt with to date. Development phase or not, are your advisers on board with this engagement style? We could look at the ALG: there are examples where things have not gone right, where sensitivities have not been respected, on both sides. Do you not accept that you could...

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

Do you think you will do that by sitting here or in the new building and thinking that the boroughs will just dance to your tune by virtue of your position?

• Question by: Lord Duvall of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich OBE
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

At the strategic level of engagement - this goes to the heart of your mayoralty - unless you engage with some of these stakeholders in a different way, you will never be able to do anything, because, as you said, everything in terms of the spatial development strategy is delivered by the boroughs on the ground. Where do you think your mayoralty is going once you have delivered on these plans? What are your aspirations? Have I missed something?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

When members of the public respond to consultation, what feedback do they get as to what notice has been taken of what they have said?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

You mentioned the Assembly the second time around there. Do you in fact have any plans to engage with Assembly Members in reaching out to the public, and if so, how?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

You speak as if this is just a thought you have, rather than any plans - The Mayor: Oh, I have plans. Graham Tope: I am trying to find out what they are. The impression we have is that we started off last year with a great burst of public consultation - "Meet the Mayor" and so on - and this year it has stopped altogether. Never mind for the moment what your thoughts are: what are your plans for the rest of this year, shall we say?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

You talk about reaching out. I have to say that, in many ways, I think that your mayoral office is one of the most buttoned-up offices I can think of. Getting any information out of your office is like trying to get blood out of a stone. We constantly ask for documents, and sometimes we are even told we will get them, but we never actually see them without making a fuss. We still await the public's responses to your transport strategy. You said that we could see them, but we have not seen them yet, and it is now...

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

One of the things we have all noticed from People's Question Time so far is that there are some Londoners with whom it is extremely easy to engage at every Question Time - wherever in London we have it, they are there. [Laughter.] But how about those who are not at People's Question Time, who are much harder to engage? What thoughts do you have about how we are effectively going to engage with them?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

Yes, but it makes our job more difficult in scrutinising your strategy if we cannot see the context in which you are making certain decisions. The whole point is that we should see them a decent amount of time before you publish your strategy.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 20 June 2001

You were just saying that that is not the case. If you want to start a debate with London, you need to see the arguments. There is creative strength in political difference. That is what happened on the congestion charge - [Interruption.] Yes, there is.