Written Answers to Questions Not Answered at Mayor's Question Time
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Written Answers to questions not answered at Mayor’s Question Time on 24 February 2010 Supporting community-led development Question No: 633 / 2010 Jenny Jones How do you support organised local communities such as the London Citizens Community Land Trust consortium who wish to lead on developing affordable housing schemes in their area? Oral response given Housing Question No: 714 / 2010 Nicky Gavron How do your Draft London Plan Opportunity Areas impact on your housing policies and targets? Oral response given Metropolitan Police Budget Question No: 881 / 2010 Dee Doocey How will your cuts to the Metropolitan Police budget affect front line policing? Oral response given Blackwall Tunnel Question No: 377 / 2010 Gareth Bacon With over 2,200 vehicles using the Blackwall Tunnel every hour in each direction, east and south east London are at risk of being brought to a standstill by plans to cordon off half of the Tunnel in each direction during the 2012 Olympic Games. Will you oppose these plans and ensure that they are never implemented? Oral response given Bridges and River Crossings Question No: 712 / 2010 Valerie Shawcross Have you, as Simon Jenkins alleges, declared war on South London? 1 Oral response given PPP Contracts Question No: 474 / 2010 Richard Tracey What mistakes did the Government make in drawing up the PPP contracts for London Underground’s upgrade? Oral response given LFEPA Question No: 713 / 2010 Len Duvall Is the reputation of LFEPA causing damage to London Government? Oral response given Anti-Semitic Incidents (1) Question No: 429 / 2010 Brian Coleman Does the Mayor share my concern about the 460 reported anti-Semitic incidents that took place in London in 2009, an increase of 95% over the past year, including 48 incidents of assault? What is being done by the GLA and Metropolitan Police to tackle anti-Semitic behaviour and protect members of the Jewish community from attacks? Oral response given London Enriched Question No: 366 / 2010 Richard Barnbrook Does the Mayor believe that the large amounts of London Taxpayers’ money being utilised to support his and the former Mayor’s initiative “London Enriched” is a signal to refugees everywhere that London in particular is the home of milk and honey and exacerbates the arrival of thousands more refugees to Calais hoping eventually to get to London and access these perceived riches? Oral response given Out of Hours Care Question No: 394 / 2010 James Cleverly Following the report that there is only 1 GP covering the whole of Bromley at night, are you concerned that the inadequate provision of Out of Hours Care is contributing to health inequalities in the capital? Oral response given 2 Manifesto Commitments Question No: 708 / 2010 John Biggs Should Londoners hold you to your Manifesto commitments? Answer provided on 8 March 2010: Of course Londoners should hold me accountable. In just over two years – if I stand again – the voters can give their verdict on whether I have made London safer, cleaner, greener, easier and more convenient to get around, maintained our competitiveness - despite the Labour government’s unilateral, politically inspired vandalism – and continued our advance as the Greatest Big City in the World. What I would say is that we are well on track with our manifesto, have made a great start but there’s always work to do. Crystal Palace FC Question No: 874 / 2010 Steve O’Connell The Mayor will be aware that Crystal Palace FC has recently entered administration. Bearing in mind that as well being an iconic partner in the borough, it is a key employer in an area of deprivation, would the Mayor wish to comment? Would he also wish to offer any comfort to those employees and to the thousands of palace fans who face a future without their beloved club? Oral response given Extension of Oyster to National Rail services Question No: 601 / 2010 Caroline Pidgeon Do you think it was right of Peter Hendy to say in his Commissioner’s report to the TfL Board on the 3rd February that the “extension of Oyster to National Rail services in London went without a hitch?” Oral response given Congestion Charge Exemptions (1) Question No: 436 / 2010 Tony Arbour Which organisations or individuals are entitled to receive exemptions to the Congestion Charge? Oral response given Draft Municipal Waste Strategy Question No: 520 / 2010 Mike Tuffrey The 2015 target for recycling or composting municipal waste has fallen from 67% by 2015 to 45%. Does this reflect more the failure of your predecessor’s strategy or your strategy’s lack of 3 ambition? (Waste Strategy 2003 compared to the Draft Municipal Waste Strategy 2010) Oral response given Oxford Street (1) Question No: 450 / 2010 Victoria Borwick Does the Mayor agree with the Transport Committee, the New West End Company, Selfridges, M&S and others that the pace of change for reducing the congestion in Oxford Street should be increased? Oral response given Budget Question No: 710 / 2010 Len Duvall Can the Mayor tell us what aspects of his budget were discussed with the London Congress at their last meeting? Answer from the Mayor: No aspects of my Budget were discussed at the meeting of the London Congress on 3 September. It is not the forum for discussions on the Budget. If you want an update on the Charter I am delighted to report that in the 10 months since the first meeting of the Congress work is progressing well. I look forward to updating you all on further progress following the next meeting of the Congress in June. The budget was passed on 10 February following full consultation with the Assembly, boroughs and others Olympic land and debt agreement (1) Question No: 403 / 2010 Andrew Boff What will be the impact on the LDA and its projects if it takes six months for an agreement to be reached on Olympic land and debt? Oral response given Recycling in flats Question No: 642 / 2010 Jenny Jones How will you ensure that all Londoners, including the half living in flats, have easy access to adequate recycling and composting facilities? Answer from the Mayor: In the draft strategy I have given high priority to improving recycling overall in London and specifically to improve recycling from flats. I intend to improve Londoner’s access to recycling services, especially the inhabitants of flats, in two ways. Firstly, I have asked the London Waste and Recycling Board to develop a programme of work 4 that will address some of the infrastructure barriers that are preventing flat dwellers from recycling. Achieving higher recycling performance in flats has proven to be a considerable challenge for London that must be addressed. The key to the success of this project will be London Borough involvement and London Waste and Recycling Board are currently in the process of pulling together a project working group, made up of boroughs, to develop the proposal. Secondly, through Recycle for London, I will provide a series of communication and behavioural change activities supporting London boroughs that want to roll out new services or just educate Londoners about existing under-utilised services. Recycle for London officers are engaging with London Boroughs now to ascertain what exactly the boroughs want to see Recycle for London do for them, with the aim off signing of a final work programme for Recycle for London in April 2010. There are some great pilots in different boroughs looking at tackling flat recycling and through both these mechanisms we can spread that best practice. Recycling must be hassle-free for every Londoner regardless of the borough or home they live in. That is why it is important to understand how best to provide and promote accessible services accepting as many materials as possible for recycling to our diverse population and housing stock, and ensure these services are supported by appropriate infrastructure. Burglary (2) Question No: 419 / 2010 Brian Coleman Will the Mayor list by ward the number of reported burglaries in the London Borough of Barnet for the last month for which figures are available and will he ask the Chairman of the MPA to take urgent action on the level of burglary in suburban boroughs? Answer from the Mayor: The MPS anticipated burglary could be a bigger problem over the last financial year as a result of the recession and Barnet has been one of the affected boroughs. The MPS has responded with Operation Bumblebee. The Bumblebee taskforce (comprising 70- 80 officers) has been posted to Barnet to support and supplement local efforts. (See table in Appendix one) There has been an increase in reported residential burglaries over the last year in Barnet, which continued to increase until October 2009. However, following the launch of Operation Bumblebee in October Barnet has now seen a 24% reduction over the last 3 months (Oct 2009- Jan2010). Please see the list attached as Appendix A. Low Emission Zone Question No: 719 / 2010 Murad Qureshi I note from advice given to you in December 2008 that it is costing TfL an additional £600,000 to delay Phase III of the LEZ to 2012. How is this cost made up? Answer from the Mayor: The information provided to me in December 2008 by TfL estimated a cost of £600,000 for consulting on proposals to change Phase 3 of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ). 5 The actual cost of the forthcoming consultation to suspend Phase 3 of the LEZ is now expected to be much lower. In any case, the cost of consultation will be more than offset by efficiencies in the way that Phase 3 is now being implemented.