• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

I could suggest to the Mayor that he just visits Barnet, which has been plagued for the last three months with travellers and consequent costs of nearly a quarter of a million pounds. If he wants evidence, I would be happy to provide him and his office with the evidence of the devastation caused by travellers.

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

I am glad you mentioned that. It is ironic that the Conservative policy now is to reintroduce permanent sites. You say that the Government should do it, but surely there is some opportunity in the strategic development strategy for London for you to champion permanent, well managed traveller sites; and, with your mayoral hat on, representing London, to learn the lessons of well managed sites from other parts of the country, where there is very good practice.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 13 September 2000

Do you believe that the local police station is as important for the survival of local communities as post offices and libraries?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Could I hazard that possibly there were too many male architects involved and as they are disproportionately designed to suit male anatomy " male bottoms " they are not very comfortable for women. But there is a more serious point. If we are trying to modernise London's Tube system, not only do weary GLA Members and the Mayor sometimes need to sit down on the way home, as you say with the delays there is often more of a need to sit down for a long time on that particular line, but there are also issues for people who are...

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

I don't think any of us would disagree about the importance of greater accessibility for the disabled and I suspect the reality is, isn't it, that in the past these things perhaps haven't been given sufficient attention and it hasn't been a matter of sufficient priority and our group would certainly support giving it greater priority. But can I just come back to one word that you used, Ken, in the course of your answer and that's this: you said you thought that the Jubilee Line had been `deliberately" designed to exclude people in wheelchairs. Was that really a serious...

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

There is a huge issue about mentality of design and I would hope that we could work together on drawing up with various disability, parent groups and so on, proposals for the simple things, and perhaps follow the example by Sadlers Wells which brought in a group of key individuals who worked together to make sure that Sadlers Wells is a fully accessible theatre. That model seems to me to work very well and deliver the results and I think that Transport for London needs to take on board the models that work to make sure that our Underground system...

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

You eloquently described the processes of the paedophiles. That they are cunning. That they are calculated. That they do worm their way into societies and organisations where they can meet and be predatory upon their victims. I too have been involved in a number of cases and a number of issues and those that survive, survive with murdered soles. I am not quite sure whether they are better off than those that actually die. My own view is that given the development of DNA testing, there are certain people and certain individuals whose crimes lead them to lose the right...

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

The best thing we could ever do is protect our children. Maybe there is something we could do in the Assembly. We could ask Boroughs to submit to us their Area Child Protection Plans. That would help. We could also ask the Police, and we who are Members of the MPA could help, to speed things up when local authorities ask when they are going to employ people who are going to work with children, is there a criminal record on this person. Sometimes they have to wait a rather long time before they get it. So those sorts of...

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

Can I ask your views on the policy followed by the News of the World in printing the names, photographs and details of individuals on the Paedophile Register and what do you think should be the general policy adopted in relation to communities in which there are known paedophiles living?

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

First of all I am sure we would all want to express our sympathy to the family of Sarah Payne. I could almost have predicted you were going to say something about being nostalgic for the 1950's. But I think you are right to highlight the fact that the number of incidents probably has not changed significantly over the last 50 years and probably longer. You talked about sentencing policy. Are you therefore advocating what are essentially full life sentences for people convicted of paedophile offences and do you support the principle of chemical castration of the individuals concerned?