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

Mr Mayor you will have to get on pretty fast with your strategy because landfill contracts, a lot of them, are ending in 2002. So waste authorities at the moment are having to go out to tender and I can assure you that the central ones are going out on short-term and long-term contracts and asking how they are going to comply with present Government's initiatives and strategies on waste disposal. Incineration, of course, is moving on very fast and new incinerators can in fact give energy. They could light streets, they can light housing estates. So I don't think...

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

In addition to that, will you lobby Central Government to make sure that Londoners get their fair share of money so that boroughs can actually invest in recycling. They can invest in the market for recycling and they can also ensure that most importantly, we actually do something about reducing waste.

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

Of course Londoners need to know that your waste strategy is actually worth the paper it is written on, even if it is recycled. Can you ensure that no incinerators will get planning permission before boroughs have met their target of 25% recycling by 2005?

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

Not wishing to prolong things, but I must say I am very disappointed with your reply and I would invite you to come and meet dentists in East London. The evidence in Birmingham, in the West Midlands for example, is that where fluoridation was introduced the incidence of dental cavities in kids declined enormously, particularly kids in poorer families who quite often don't have the benefit of the expensive and well chosen diets of the more middle class families. I think it would be a disservice to the people of London to rule out fluoridation at this stage. The evidence...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

I will. I think this is fighting an old battle. The huge level of cavities that kids used to get in their teeth are now not the problem. I mean there has been fluoride in toothpaste and kids swallow a lot of it. And whereas I know there are many areas of the world where fluoride levels in water are below those that would be the case if we added it, those are areas of the world where, over millions of years, the local wildlife has evolved to cope with that level of fluoride. It doesn't automatically follow that merely...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Will you then, on behalf of Londoners, as Mayor use your office to oppose any attempts by the Government to introduce fluoride to London's drinking water?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 27 July 2000

Could you perhaps help on the question of cleaning up because as well as the cost of policing, I know that Westminster City Council is still slightly aggrieved that money that was promised them last time round has not been entirely forthcoming from the Government to foot the bill for cleaning up. They have a particular duty of course because by 10.00am the next morning there is the London Parade which goes right through that patch. I think you have been helpful in terms of talking about helping to refund the direct cost of cleaning up. But then of course...

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

Are you saying then that if funding can be made available you would like the big London New Year's Eve party to be an annual event? And if that is what you are saying, are you also saying then to most Metropolitan Police Officers and many other public service workers that whilst Ken Livingston is Mayor of London, they will never spend New Year's Eve with their friends and family? Do you think that is a vote winner?

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

Whilst everybody wants Londoners to enjoy New Year's Eve and want it to be a successful celebration, the level of overtime payment is extraordinarily high given the pressure that there is upon policing at Borough level. This as you know, is the subject of my question to you later on. The concerns there are that it is difficult enough getting police officers out into our ordinary High Streets, leaving aside the additional burden of this. It sounds as though what you were saying is through no fault of yours, you're being asked to pick up the tab for one of...

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

I don't know whether Victor Anderson is a School Governor or not? I know many of us around this table have much experience with being a Governor of schools. I am currently Governor of two secondary schools in Barnet. Many of us involved in schools, and many many professional teachers, welcome the involvement of OfSTED and the actions of Chris Woodhead and although I normally wouldn't have much time for David Blunkett but in retaining Woodhead, Blunkett has the full support of all people who want to see sensible policies in education. But can I ask The Mayor, whether he...