• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

(Cross rail) Towards the end of August, Mr Mayor, you received a letter from Councillor Muhammed Javed, who is the Labour leader of Redbridge Council, taking you to task for your decision to re-route the Chelsea-Hackney line away from the north part of Redbridge and pointing out that you were acting without a great deal of information about what was happening locally, based more on your prejudices than any sort of rational analysis of the situation. I just wondered if you had made a similar error with this, or if you'd actually discussed with Redbridge Council and Havering Council the...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

(PPP) The position you've taken is absolutely right, to be as constructive as you can within what is a dreadful situation for all of us. I was staggered, actually, when I read the Deloitte & Touche report. Value for money is absolutely clearly shown to be not the case. In the light of what you sent to the government, one wonders how they can come back to you with an alternative that's not scrapping the PPP? But my questions are twofold; one, if it does go to the National Audit Office and they find in our favour, what road does...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

I wondered if you'd like to give some sympathy to our Labour colleagues here, who are plainly not speaking for their voters on this issue because they're under constraints from their party?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

Would you agree that this sudden 'step-in right' business smacks a little bit of last minute panic to try and get around this issue of safety, that at least they're now recognising the fact that this is an issue which they haven't perhaps properly addressed in the past?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

I'm interested in your reaction to this new move by Mr Byers on safety, these so-called, 'step-in rights.' Mr Kiley said yesterday that he'd be interested in looking at the proposals. Has he been given the opportunity to do that yet, or anybody else in TfL? If so, what does he think of them? What do you expect of them, and do you think they'll go any way at all to allay your concerns about the safety issue?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

I wanted to actually focus attention on safety, but first, perhaps I'll just ask you, do you think it's a little bit sad, Mr Livingstone, that the Labour Party has to hide behind the sort of disclaimer that you find on the bottom of almost any document provided by companies like accountants asked to look into shady dealings?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

You could conclude that consultants will come back with whatever you ask them to come back with. You pay them a lot of money, they come back with a thick report which roughly says what you asked them to say in the first place, and I think that obviously is somewhat disreputable if it turns out to be the case. To this end, I asked Bob Kiley on 30 August, to provide me with details of the brief given to Deloitte & Touche for their work, any amendments that were made to that brief, any amendments that were made to...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

That's certainly apparent. I think your distinction is somewhat semantic, but the other point I wanted to raise is one on which I'm a little less happy, is you've waxed lyrical about the Deloitte & Touche report. You haven't clarified that within it, it says, 'You should not rely on our work as being comprehensive' and it says, 'Our work is not intended to be a substitute for a detailed evaluation leading to a conclusion of whether the proposal is likely to provide value for money.' It also said that the Underground, or its financial advisors, hadn't been able to...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

Have you actually got any plans to galvanise this support in some way, to put pressure on the government?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 05 September 2001

I take it from what you're saying, then, that after this meeting you will instruct Bob Kiley, the commissioner, to take a more constructive stance in negotiating on the PPP?