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

For the record, I am absolutely with you on this, Ken. I do not have a vendetta on this issue. The flooding was a wake-up call for London. Some of Roger Evans's constituents were flooded when the River Roding burst its banks. In my constituency, much of which is on the mud flats of the Thames, Environment Agency officers sitting at the back of meetings for years have been quietly disregarded when they have raised these issues. Many people in very expensive houses in Wapping, for example, are below the high water level and rely on pumping systems. It is...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Many Londoners live above Teddington, above the tidal Thames, particularly on the islands such as Trowlock* Island and Tags* Island. Many of them were very disappointed that the Thames barrier was not lowered to protect them. Given that, in your day, when the barrier was built, they contributed through the GLC precept, I wonder whether you can try to persuade the Environment Agency to use their influence in seeing that the barrier is used to protect those residents who live above Teddington and are subject to flooding.

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

Mr Mayor, in your contacts with Government Departments and members of the Government over the Dome, will you make representations to the Minister for the Dome, Lord Falconer, that it really would be a good idea if he were to come and talk to the Assembly about the project in which he has been involved, if he expects himself and the Assembly created by the Government to be taken seriously? So far, he has disgracefully refused to appear before us.

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

I thank the Mayor for dealing with the easy subject for today. Consistent with his planning responsibilities - if there was an application for a material change of use, he would have to take a view - can he assure us that he will keep in the closest touch to ensure that the regeneration objectives of the area are kept at the top of the agenda?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Does the same principle apply to civil servants from the Government Office for London, who refused only yesterday to attend a public session of the Environment Committee to discuss the new building?

• Question by: Trevor Phillips
• Meeting date: 15 November 2000

Thank you for that statement, Ken, which expresses the view of the Assembly. In accordance with the Assembly's previous resolution, I am pursuing this matter both with Ministers and with the other devolved bodies. I shall shortly be meeting my opposite numbers from Wales and Northern Ireland on this question.

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

I am grateful to the Mayor for that answer, which I accept. Does he not agree that remembering those killed on active service in Northern Ireland and supporting the peace process are not mutually exclusive?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

I would like to go back to your statement, which I did not know until now, that you released the document to journalists on the Saturday. You put out a press release with an embargo for midnight on Sunday. Yet the Assembly did not receive this weighty document and important technical document until Monday. That again is diplomacy by press release, which you promised the Assembly you would not do. We were not able to make a response to the report, when your press release had departed from our impressions of it, until the Monday. You knew that we on...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

I am very cautious about getting involved in the internecine wars between yourself and the Labour party over your long-term project to get back into it, and I would not want to accuse you of lying. But I would take up a word that Mr Biggs did use - "fantasising". Is it fantasy to think that there will be a bond issue? If there is a bond issue, is there really enough fares money that you can put into a securitised bond in the way you suggest? I am interested that your bond issue would be secured on fares and...

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 18 October 2000

It is very important that we have a agreed written protocol, whereby information is available to the Assembly -