Written Answers to Questions Not Answered at Mayor's Question Time
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Appendix 3 Written Answers to questions not answered at Mayor’s Question Time on 25 February 2009 Crossrail Question No: 199 / 2009 Jenny Jones How will requiring new developments at Elephant and Castle to contribute to the costs of Crossrail affect the regeneration of the area? Oral Response Borough Targets Question No: 422 / 2009 Nicky Gavron Can you please update us on your indicative housing target negotiations with London’s boroughs? Oral Response London Electric Working Group Question No: 293 / 2009 Caroline Pidgeon What progress do you expect your London Electric Working Group to make in encouraging the greater use of electric cars and light vans? Oral Response Bendy Buses Fare Evasion Question No: 378 / 2009 Richard Tracey When you take in to account the cost of fare evasion what do you estimate the saving to be in replacing the bendy buses? Oral Response Air Quality & the EU Question No: 439 / 2009 Murad Qureshi Now that the EU has decided to take action on the unacceptably poor air quality in London, what are you, as directly elected Mayor of the biggest city in Europe, doing to improve London’s air quality? Oral Response 1 Youth employment Question No: 392 / 2009 James Cleverly As levels of unemployment reach record levels, what are your plans to ensure young people are not at risk of being pushed out of the employment market? Oral Response Select Committees Question No: 503 / 2009 John Biggs How do you decide whether and when to attend select committees? Oral Response Outer London Commission Question No: 360 / 2009 Brian Coleman What is the budget for the Outer London Commission? Oral Response London Olympic Site Question No: 246 / 2009 Richard Barnbrook In the light of the recent British Jobs for British Workers protests, what measures will the Mayor be putting into place to ensure that local people are employed at the London Olympic Site? Oral Response Woolwich Arsenal DLR Question No: 408 / 2009 Andrew Boff Whilst the opening of the Woolwich Arsenal DLR station was hugely welcome its popularity has highlighted the overcrowding on the DLR. Therefore can the Mayor update the Assembly on the progress of the DLR upgrades to three-carriage trains? Oral Response Queens Market Question No: 508 / 2009 John Biggs Why are you scared of your constituents in Newham? Oral Response 2 Heathrow Question No: 371 / 2009 Gareth Bacon Is the Mayor persuaded by the effectiveness of the “green” concessions proposed by the Government as part of its support for a third runway at Heathrow? Oral Response Olympic legacy Question No: 316 / 2009 Dee Doocey You announced on 5 February 2009 that you would be setting up a private company to deliver the legacy from the 2012 Games. What budgets will this body control? Oral Response Mortgage Rescue Question No: 366 / 2009 Steve O’Connell Does the Mayor believe that the Government’s mortgage rescue scheme is adequate for London’s struggling homeowners? Oral Response Air Quality (1) Question No: 330 / 2009 Mike Tuffrey What response have you had from Lord Mandelson to your letter regarding working with the Government on a subsidy scheme for replacing the oldest, most polluting light goods vehicles and will this subsidy be in place by 2010? Oral Response Olympic Taxis Question No: 397 / 2009 Victoria Borwick Will the Mayor give very serious consideration to using taxis as Olympic transport vehicles? Oral Response Domestic Violence Question No: 527 / 2009 Joanne McCartney What place will domestic violence have in your Violence Against Women strategy? Oral Response 3 Cautions and fixed penalties Question No: 394 / 2009 Tony Arbour Please list the number and categories of criminal offences which were dealt with by way of fixed penalties and cautions between January and December 2007 and January and December 2008. Oral Response Additional information provided following the meeting: The table attached at Appendix F sets out the number and categories of criminal offences, which were dealt with by way of fixed penalties and cautions between January and December 2007 and January and December 2008. The total number of fixed penalties and cautions in 2008 was 61,965, which accounts for 7.2 % of the total number of criminal offences in 2008 of 850,856. The issuing of fixed penalty notices and cautions is but a small part of the police’s armoury to deal with criminal offences in London. Low Emission Zone Question No: 200 / 2009 Darren Johnson Will you call on the European Commission to refuse the UK Government’s request to extend the deadline for meeting the PM10 and NO2 air quality limit values? Answer from the Mayor: I believe it would be counter productive to call upon the EU to refuse the Government’s request to extend the deadline for meeting PM10 and NO2. This approach will not deliver actual improvements in air quality on the ground. I intend to focus on putting in place measures to achieve genuine reductions rather than political gestures. There are a number of initiatives in place to deal with this issue, such as; encouraging more electric vehicles; ensuring every bus entering the fleet is hybrid by 2012 and investing in hydrogen buses. I have also kept the Low Emission Zone Phase 1 & 2, which has worked well and targets the heaviest polluting vehicles. I met with Lord Hunt last month and we agreed that Defra and GLA officials would work together over the coming months to look at potential measures that could be taken at the local, regional and national level to further reduce PM10 emissions in London. Officers will also look at measures to tackle NO2. 66 Bus Route Question No: 415 / 2009 Roger Evans The 66 Bus Route travels from Leytonstone to Romford and connects five London Underground stations and Romford Rail Station. Will the Mayor ask TfL to investigate extending the 66 Bus Route to a 24 hour service as this would be hugely beneficial to my constituents? Oral Response 4 Civil Service Pensioners Question No: 507 / 2009 John Biggs Do you accept that the majority of public sector employees and former public sector pensioners are far from being ‘fat cats’ and that your comments, given that as Mayor you are an employer, are misconceived? Answer from the Mayor: There is a distinction to be drawn between many talented and hard working public servants, most of whose individual pensions are relatively modest and the total public sector liability, which is unsustainable and needs to be openly debated and addressed. Family Sized Units Question No: 413 / 2009 Andrew Boff To what extent does the mayor think that the demographic shift towards smaller households is as a result of the shortage of family sized properties. Please could the Mayor make available the data used by the LDA in relation to the Barrier Park East development on socially rented demand in Newham that justify the LDA’s position that “The percentage of one and two bedroom units on this scheme reflect local needs”. Oral Response Information on the TfL Website Question No: 470 / 2009 Valerie Shawcross Why is TfL so slow to publish board and committee papers on the TfL website? · Example 1 – 27 Jan 09 Finance Committee Meeting - no documents posted before the meeting - as of today (10 Feb) not one single paper has been posted for this meeting on the TfL site · Example 2 – 10 Feb TfL board meeting - no papers were posted until Fri 6 Feb when the Agenda only was posted to the TfL site – no papers and no reports - as of the date of the meeting the agenda remains the only document posted · Example 3 TfL are also very slow at posting other reports eg the Operational Performance report for Q3 was in today’s Board meeting papers but only Q1 has been put on the TfL web site with Q2 completely missing. Answer from the Mayor: TfL uploads the agenda for the Board meeting the day it is posted to Board Members. For the Board meeting on Tuesday 10 February, this was on Friday 6 February as noted. The papers for the meeting appeared live on the website on the night of the meeting. TfL publishes open Board, Committee and Panel reports on the web as soon as possible after the meeting where they have been considered by Members. In the case of material which is for later 5 consideration by the Board, the material is published after that later meeting. There was a delay in uploading the papers for the 27 January Finance Committee meeting for which TfL apologises. Road Safety Question No: 423 / 2009 Valerie Shawcross What steps are you taking to reduce fatal and serious accidents involving pedestrians on London’s roads? Answer from the Mayor: The numbers of pedestrians killed and seriously injured has reduced from 1,870 in 2000 to 1,292 in 2007 (a 31% decrease). With 109 pedestrians killed in 2007 however, reducing this number further remains a high priority. TfL continues to upgrade its network to provide safer crossings for pedestrians. TfL’s London Road Safety Unit work closely with their Walking & Accessibility team to improve the walking environment for pedestrians in London. With regards to safety, this means providing adequate facilities, such as crossings, which will enable people to make a journey on foot in a direct and safe manner. In addition TfL, through the Local Implementation Plan process, fund borough initiatives to improve pedestrian safety on local roads. TfL will also be updating their Walking Plan alongside my Transport Strategy and there will be more focus on improving urban realm/public spaces and pedestrian safety. There have been a number of critically acclaimed campaigns that aim to improve the safety of pedestrians (e.g.