• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

I do not want to duplicate what other people have said, but I would throw in three little snippets. First, this area of Hoxton, which borders my constituency, is coming to life as a night-time economy area. There is a very vibrant social environment there and a growing residential community, and the road system is incredibly hostile to that. Secondly, it is worth making the point about cycling provision as well. I used to cycle to work down this road, in the days when I was young and fit, and you literally take your life in your hands when you...

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Would the Mayor express concern about boroughs that are cutting their youth services? My own in Barnet is proposing next year cuts of £350,000 and three youth worker posts. I also pay tribute to the Peabody Trust, which runs the largest youth service in London - almost a privatised youth service - and is doing wonderful work on many estates that have often been ignored by borough councils.

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

There is something behind this. Although the context is very different now from the 70s and the early 80s, and in many ways rather better, because we have infinitely better partnership arrangements, many of the initiatives in that period and lessons learned then are not being remembered or used now. Then we had IT workers, detached youth workers and much more money in the youth service. We also had, on the whole, a pattern of community development workers across London, working long-term. We do not have those resources now. In your position as Mayor, you may be able to make...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

With members of the IAAF lobbying against Picketts Lock, do you think there is an opportunity for something of a rapprochement with Bromley Council in promoting Crystal Palace as a good venue for international sporting events like the World Athletic Championships, and for doing some informal and low-cost work with them in re-bidding for Sports England funding for the development of that site?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

What I am seeking from Ken is an assurance that we as Assembly Members will not hear on the radio that he has been pushed into taking on a responsibility that we agree he does not have. But things change, and that is the assurance we need.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

In your role as London champion, will you be staying on this matter, and will you be reporting that back to the Assembly? I take the humour that you bring to this, but it is clearly an important development for London, and it has required many hours of work. You have named Nicky and others involved in Picketts Lock. We heard this morning on the radio about the chances of Wembley being redesigned, perhaps with an athletics capability. Will that be ready for 2005? Will not the announcements this morning send the hares running? Is not locating the 2005 Championship...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

To recap, the problem is that all Assembly Members are receiving lots of complaints about buses, and there have been no specific improvements yet. I am very grateful that Dave Wetzel is coming down to Lambeth and Southwark to do two public meetings, but I would like you to pass a suggestion on to your colleagues on the Transport for London board: basically, we need a more systematic and transparent approach locally to a bus improvement programme. When tendering of routes is taking place, it is very important that we have an opportunity to influence the specifications included in those...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Ken, I wanted to raise a concern I have. Darren Johnson was quoted on the front page of one of the Islington papers last week as being implacably opposed to the proposals for redevelopment of the Arsenal and the other two sites that are part of this planning application. Given that he is your adviser on environmental issues, I hope that you will therefore take his advice with a pinch of salt. I cannot believe that he has gone through eight pages of documents in detail. I am also aware that the former London Ecology Unit is going to be...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

As well as a supporter of Arsenal as the best club in London, I have spent hours and hours involved in the work that has been done around this proposal. I totally agree with Meg that Darren is being a little opportunistic, and has not thought this through. Does he imagine that he could just have one lobby from such a huge event? Is he not just pushing himself to the front on a very serious issue, which he knows nothing about?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

I agree that you could possibly be spending your time meeting third party representatives on every planning application; but this is the largest single planning application in Islington for over 100 years, and it will have a massive impact on the local community. I therefore think that you could make an exception in this case. I am anxious that you give the community concerns proper consideration. We hear that, when George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, he would spend no longer than 15 minutes deciding on whether someone should be executed. I hope that you will be giving this...