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

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

And that's to be commended Mayor, but how will we get to know about the progress of these intentions?

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

And that's to be commended, Mayor, but how will we get to know about the progress of these intentions?

• Question by: David Lammy
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Despite our new office building in South London, can I invite the Mayor to explore our wonderful facilities in North London, particularly our historic building, Alexandra Palace, and explore with Haringey Council ways in which we can engage our community up there. We recently had, as you know, Bernie Grant's funeral in Alexandra Palace. Can I invite you to explore the use of that facility?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

This is a scheme which changes by the day, we seem to have different proposals in front of us and it develops every time we discuss this. The proposal around charging is one of those and you've answered one of my questions in written form where you said originally it was going to be £5 a day, now you are suggesting £7.50 a day. Your deputy Dave Wetzel wants a charge of £50 a day. Isn't this much more about raising money and taxing motorists than about solving London's congestion problems?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Are you prepared to accept the principle of their being a number of tests which need to be satisfied before a scheme is introduced? As you know, the Labour Party supports the principle of congestion charging, but the devil is, of course, in the detail. There are questions such as whether the method of issuing tickets causes further congestion, whether there is displacement as a result of that; whether the capacity of the public transport systems is sufficient to take the additional strain that congestion charging will, in theory, create. Would you be happy with the principle of there being...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

You can't say that they are not counterposed. We might hope that they won't be counterposed, but we run a risk on congestion charging by trying to be the first major city to implement such a scheme. And you are right, the eyes of the world will be upon us, and this one policy has the potential to really change London for the better. You and I are on the same side, no seriously, and we both want it to work, so my question is supposing a real problem gets thrown up, whether it's from the consultation exercise, from the...

• Question by: Toby Harris
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

I am sure we're all in favour of not being cruel, but I want to just clarify whether your concerns about animal rights extend to all sorts of animals including those which most Londoners would regard as vermin and causing substantial nuisance and possibly serious public health problems?

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Great. That's really good. I would just like to point out that in the latest Budget Report it says that the Mayor's office has an underspend against the agreed budget for staffing and that consideration is being given to additional recruitment against this underspend, so obviously there is some money in the kitty for this.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

That's very good news. The Green Party produced a recent document called "Animals In London" which Animal Aid described as an excellent report, which of course I would agree with. Could you take that into account when determining the areas of work for the officer? We are very concerned that it's not just seen in a small focus but a much larger focus.