• Question by: Sally Hamwee
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Can you confirm, as your reply seems to suggest, that the sole criterion for your decision is financial? If so, would you accept that other issues, such as the physical environment, the air conditioning, the knock-on costs of the space available for individuals to work and so on, all themselves have financial consequence?.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

That seems just a little optimistic. Experience here does not suggest that so far. Can I press you on this point? I am grateful for what I take it is your acceptance that you will specifically seek our views. But I was pressing you to initiate more detailed work, because real damage could be done to the reputation of the GLA as an institution if the same scenario developed for our new headquarters as has developed with the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly's buildings. Although I accept that it might be attractive to say that this is yet another...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Would you accept that there is a growing concern, both among the Assembly and throughout the broader London public, that what might have appeared to be a superficially attractive deal financially may be undercut by inadequacies of the building in a number of other regards - in particular, its inability to accommodate the whole of our staff? This will mean that a number of them may have to be based elsewhere, where you will have not a subsidised rent but one which it has been suggested could be four times the level. Secondly, it is suggested that there will be...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

I wanted to advance on Jenny's statement. She is right: we will be coming to you in person and in depth next Tuesday. While I accept that it is realistic to recognise that people are using their cars and may have to continue doing so, you say that public transport will be improved in outer London. That was not clearly coming through. I wondered where you think that improvement will come, as most of the routes are still the radial routes in and out of central London.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

During our recent scrutiny of your congestion charge proposals, Jenny Jones, who was a member of our Committee, articulated Green party policy in a well-judged sentence as "reducing congestion without increasing the speed of traffic". Do you feel that that objective is either possible or desirable?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

I do not want to pre-empt anything I am going to ask you next week, but there are features of that draft transport strategy - for example, the widening of junctions - which encourage the idea that we are still trying to improve traffic flows; and that will only increase traffic. Without these traffic reduction targets, we will not achieve what we want.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

The Assembly's draft transport strategy scrutiny panel grilled your officers yesterday - Richard Smith and Keith Gardner - for four hours. We heard from them that there will be traffic reduction targets within this strategy when it is finalised. But those targets do not reduce traffic: they will reduce the increase in traffic, so we will still have an increase in traffic into central London, let alone the outer boroughs. This has not been tackled. To accept that the outer boroughs and the centre of London are going to have a continuing increase is not acceptable.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

I have here some feedback from a member of the public on New Year's Eve. It says: "Cancel it. Take the money and convert all London buses to run on methane gas." It sounds quite good to me.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Does the Mayor agree that Members of the Assembly would be better employed using Question Time to be constructive for the benefit of Londoners, rather than to carry on personal vendettas against yourself?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Do you accept, then, Mayor, that you are responsible - this is part of Eric's question, I think - for organising and co-ordinating this event, and that you have failed to do so in a proper and timely fashion?