• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Well thank you for that. I shall certainly be taking it up with the Members of the MPA. Part of the reason for my tabling the question here was so that it could be ventilated publicly because it is an issue of great concern in the Borough of Bexley. I had hoped the Chair of the MPA was going to be here to hear it but he seems temporarily not to be with us. But I will write to him as far as that is concerned. But would you agree that it cannot be a satisfactory state of allocation of...

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Are you aware that according to a recent parliamentary answer, around 250 senior employees of London Transport have a car as part of their remuneration package? Is it your intention to encourage this practice or bring it to an end?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

I just wonder if you could tell us how you are going to measure Mr Wetzel's performance and what targets he will need to achieve to have been a success in the job so that we can all learn and see if he is as good as you make out?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Thank you. You told me in an answer to a question I asked you much earlier this morning that you admired Mr Wetzel's sense of humour. Which must be good. I think it is the most expensive sense of humour since Bob Hope looking at the answer to this question.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

One other qualification that Dave Wetzel has is he happened to sign your nomination papers as Mayor and he is about to be expelled from the Labour Party for his pains. His more recent qualifications in business have been running an antique shop in Devon and a restaurant in Brentford. Can you understand that perhaps there is a suspicion in some people's minds that you might be laying yourself open by appointing so close a political associate to a job at public expense, that you might be laying yourself open perhaps to accusations of jobs for the boys.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

In agreeing that salary of £45,000 per annum for Mr Wetzel, did you regard his qualifications and experience as being appropriate for the full time executive Vice Chair of Transport for London and given your commitment to seeking world class management for London Transport, do you regard Mr Wetzel's appointment at that salary as part of your package of world class management?

• Question by: Samantha Heath
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Is your housing commission going to be able to look at the costs of rents, of high rents, in London. I would just like to cite a Council flat in the ward which I represent, which isn't meant to be the most salubrious of wards, and one Council rent is £300 a week and I was wondering if your housing commission could look into that?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Mr Mayor, the policies of Wandsworth have always gone through their various committees which are open to the public and also through the Council. Which again is open to the public. We have had extreme scrutiny and nobody could find anywhere that we have done anything that is untoward or even have done anything similar to Westminster. I really must say that your information is totally inaccurate. Wandsworth Council have got a huge social housing stock and it now has an affordable housing stock within the borough. It is one Council that has in fact refurbished its social housing stock...

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Mr Mayor that is not actually what I asked. But I want to go a bit further. In fact Wandsworth Council has, in negotiation with planners, accepted affordable housing on the large planning sites along the River. However what I am asking you to do is to apologise for your extreme language. This will do nothing to enhance the office that you hold, nor will it make negotiations with local authorities any easier. I must emphasise Mr Mayor that your extreme language is really quite disrespectful to the office that you hold.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

I have been around the NHS, as you have and many in this room have, for some time and I just think we need more than hope and I would ask you to join me working with an organisation like the Sickle Cell Society and certainly members of the Assembly to actually do a little bit more than hope and do our best to ensure that this happens. This affects a significant proportion of people and just looking at London there is actually a need for additional screening and counselling and more research and education and training for their condition.