• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

It is inevitable that the majority of Assembly Members represent areas substantially outside the zone. As Valerie Shawcross has said, in many areas there is support for looking at congestion charging as part of a package; but the fundamental problem is, what is that package? People are saying, "Ken Livingstone put congestion charging in his manifesto. He stated that his credibility stands or falls by it, that he is hellbent on getting it in midway through his term." I can sense the beginnings of retreat here, and the Assembly's role is to make your retreat as graceful as possible if...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

Just supposing that the majority view of the population of London is that the scheme does not look workable on paper, and there are intractable problems. If there was massive opposition - although that is not something that I personally would welcome - would you be prepared to drop the proposals? If so, what alternative strategy would there be for reducing congestion in areas such as Lambeth and Southwark, where it causes serious suffering?

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

Thank you very much for that. You will be interested to know that both Lambeth and Southwark Councils have now expressed support in principle for congestion charging. But there is huge, huge concern about the details of the scheme. Particularly, people in south London feel that they have had a very bad deal from public transport, and improvements are crucial there. To what extent would you be willing to extend and perhaps deepen the consultation and the development process if you felt that you had not yet got it right? We need to see this as an efficient, effective and...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

I hate to contradict and teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but, according to RoSPA, being able to swim does not protect someone from drowning. In the case in Hackney, the child was three and was accompanied by his five-year-old sister. They walked through a gate that was completely accessible to children. This is a basic, simple thing. I am working with the Chair of the Assembly and other bodies to provide the simple mechanism that would have saved that three-year-old. It is shocking that, only a mile or so away, there were measures that would have prevented that death...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

One thing that arose from the death of Kareem Tawaih in Hackney is that, just up the road in Tottenham, child safety gates had been installed four years earlier. This may be too much detail for the spatial development strategy, but there are issues such as child safety which cut across borders and could be included in the strategy. Particularly where large concentrations of families live near waterways, Londoners would be reassured if they could believe that the SDS included some overview and ensured that there was a Londonwide strategy for dealing with issues of safety where there are large...

• Question by: Eric Ollerenshaw
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

I know that, during the election campaign, the Mayor went to an event organised by the London Canals Committee, which has representation in the boroughs crossed by canals. In this new super-efficient structure devised by the Government for London's government, where does he actually see the London Canals Committee eventually fitting in?

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

• Question by: Trevor Phillips
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

I do not know whether the news you have been given, Ken, is that lorry drivers are blockading Parliament Square. Perhaps you are glad that the responsibility for squares does not start till 1 October.

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

I am concerned that, having told me at our last meeting that we would get an idea of the phasing in September, you are now talking about an announcement "this year". Why has there been that slippage?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

Will you approach London MPs of all parties to work with you in lobbying the Minister, and if need be, supporting any motions in the House of Commons to get him to look at this again?