• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

I have no intention of reducing the precept in the run-up to the election. The problem in London is that we have inadequate public services, which have been underfunded, and unfairly funded, for many years. There was a clear choice at the election. The Labour party ran on the basis that they would not increase the council tax if elected. I refused to give that commitment, which I though was irresponsible; I won the election. I have increased the council tax more than I would like, but when you look at the problems that bear down, you see that we...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

It was fairly secret, but we did hear about it; and I am glad that you have now admitted that you did a deal with the Commissioner and the Chairman of the MPA in order to get this 60p on band D through the MPA, which it duly did. I have to say to you that not all Conservatives were happy about it, as Jenny Jones said, because we realised the difficulty that the rise from £91 to £126 would cause local authorities. A total of 863 officers have left this year, and we have recruited 627. That is a...

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Well, you have managed to do it again: you have united the Assembly in cross-party annoyance at the lack of courtesy you are showing to us. Obvious the Police Authority was pleased about the extra money. We get to spend it, and you get the blame if it is not spent properly. But we have to find some positive route forward. Is it possible for you to work together with the Chair of the Police Authority so that a little more information is disseminated to its members? It is a new authority, and we need your support to make us...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

You are of course aware that the view of the MPA was unanimously that it is your responsibility to decide how much to tax London taxpayers; but, as you are minded to make the equivalent of 60p per week available to the Metropolitan Police Authority, we spent some time working out how best to use those resources. I hear what you say - that you trust the MPA; that you accept the MPA's role - but I must echo Graham Tope's remarks. When you get into the detail, I think that you do cut across what are legitimate matters both...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 20 December 2000

Are you aware that the outer London boroughs view this with considerable suspicion? They pay a substantial amount in the police precept, and for two of the boroughs which I represent, since the majority of residents live in band F and G housing, the figure will be not 60p but more than £1 a week. They do not believe that they will get a fair share of the additional resources that you will be pulling in through the precept. They think that it would be far better spent if they had control of the extra money to provide law enforcement...

• 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.