Written Answers to Questions not answered at Mayor's Question Time on 17 July 2013 Confidence in the Met Question No: 2013/2433 Joanne McCartney Should Londoners have confidence in your oversight of the Metropolitan Police Service? Oral response Pledge on job creation Question No: 2013/2434 Fiona Twycross You pledged in your 2012 manifesto that you would create 200,000 jobs directly through City Hall programmes. Exactly how many of these jobs have you created so far? Oral response Your election manifesto and fire service cuts Question No: 2013/2435 Andrew Dismore Why did you not tell the people of London that you would support a proposal to close 12 of their fire stations, remove 18 of their fire engines, and cut 520 of their firefighters' jobs in your election manifesto last year? Oral response Fares Question No: 2013/2436 Valerie Shawcross Your manifesto said, 'My approach will ensure that fares will be lower in the long term', but since you have been Mayor, fares have gone up by 6%, 7.1%, 6.8%, 5.6% & 4.2%. Is this keeping your manifesto promise? Oral response NHS at 65 Question No: 2013/2437 Onkar Sahota On the 65th anniversary of the NHS, does the Mayor feel that London needs a pan-regional strategic health authority? Oral response Rough Sleeping Question No: 2013/2438 Tom Copley What will you do to stem the increase in rough sleeping? Oral response Air Pollution Question No: 2013/2439 Murad Qureshi Your 2012 manifesto pledged to 'champion improvement to London's air quality'. With your more substantive measures due to take place after the next mayoral election, are you delivering against this pledge? Oral response Affordable rent programme Question No: 2013/2251 Darren Johnson A publication on the GLA web site provides figures for Affordable Rent programme starts and completions for 2011-12 and 2012-13 for the whole of Greater London, and broken down by borough. Please provide the same figures for the programme, but with separate figures for (a) new build homes and (b) conversions from social rent. The Mayor None of the homes reported on the GLA website (to which you refer to) relate to conversions from social rent. Turnham Green Tube Stop Question No: 2013/2252 Caroline Pidgeon Further to your answer to MQ 1249/2013 please confirm the exact timetable for contacting interested parties to ask for their views on services stopping at this station? The Mayor TfL has had discussions with the local authority about the planned engagement programme, and is now similarly discussing this with the local MP. The full programme of engagement will commence in late August. St Pancras charity Oyster card collection Question No: 2013/2253 Caroline Pidgeon Since 2008 or when the collection began, whichever is earlier, please state the number of cards donated how much this box has raised for charity? Can you confirm that TfL also donates the Oyster card deposit to charity as well as any unused balance? The Mayor Since 2008, a total of 2,826 cards have been deposited at King's Cross St Pancras. From these, £8,222.87 has been donated to charity. This figure includes both the deposit and the remaining Pay As You Go (PAYG) credit. The average donation per card is £2.90, but it should be noted that older cards and Visitor cards do not have deposits, and that some cards have a zero PAYG balance when donated. Summer Streets on Regent Street Question No: 2013/2254 Caroline Pidgeon Now that you have partially implemented this policy that I have long advocated will you be seeking to extend Summer Streets onto Oxford Street? The Mayor As you know, I have been a strong, long-standing advocate of Summer Streets. I am delighted that we've had agreement to the Summer Streets on Regent Street pilot programme of closures for four consecutive Sundays in July 2013. I understand that the Oxford Street retailers will look at the monitoring and assessment of the Regent Street scheme and consider whether they support its extension next summer. Elephant & Castle TfL funding Question No: 2013/2255 Caroline Pidgeon Your answer to MQ 1255/2013 was vague at best. Can you please provide more detail about the level of funding that local residents can expect to see invested in Elephant and Castle? The Mayor Officers are drafting a response which will be sent shortly. Written response from the Mayor 04 September 2013. As part of the broader regeneration of the Elephant & Castle area, TfL will deliver a new Northern Line Ticket Hall and a new layout for the northern roundabout. The current estimate of the combined costs of these works is £140 million, provided the new ticket hall is integrated into a new shopping centre. These works will be funded by TfL, developer contributions, LB Southwark CIL and the GLA. Boxing Day service on London Overground Question No: 2013/2256 Caroline Pidgeon As you will be aware service on the London Overground has been severely disrupted on Boxing Day in recent years due to engineering work. Will you take steps to ensure that as much of the London Overground network as possible is running on Boxing Day 2013? The Mayor London Overground services do not currently run on Boxing Day. One of the reasons for this is that operation of the Overground network requires Network Rail signal box staffing, which is not in place on Boxing Day. TfL is considering whether to specify Boxing Day services when the concession is re-let. Clearly this would need to involve an agreement with Network Rail, as well as a review of demand and an assessment of whether services on Boxing Day would represent value for money. Gold Card discount scheme Question No: 2013/2257 Caroline Pidgeon Please state the number of annual travel cards sold by TfL in 2011, 2012, 2013 and the number of Gold Card discounts that are loaded onto Oyster cards? The Mayor 110,000 Annual Travelcards were sold by TfL in 2011, which grew to 115,000 in 2012. 77,000 had been sold by the end of October 2013. There are currently around 150,000 valid Annual Travelcards on Oyster, of which around 40,000 have the Gold Card discount set. This has increased significantly from 24,000 in December 2012 due to an email campaign alerting holders of Annual Travelcards to their eligibility for the discount. 'The Greatest City on Earth' (1) Question No: 2013/2258 Caroline Pidgeon In your 2020 Vision you state an aim to have 2000 New Buses for London on the road. Each of these buses will cost Londoners approximately £50,000 more than a standard hybrid bus. Do you agree that Londoners would prefer 2000 standard hybrid buses and have £100 million invested in other parts of the transport network? The Mayor No. The investment is providing a much-needed boost to economic growth in the UK as so many components are made and assembled here. The order of 600 production vehicles has already resulted in a new Wrightbus chassis plant opening in Antrim, creating 50 new jobs. This is before other jobs secured or generated at companies that supply the engines from Darlington, seats from Telford, moquette fabric from Huddersfield, and flooring from Liskeard, Cornwall, are taken into account. TfL has already confirmed that the average unit cost of the New Bus for London is £354,500 over the life of the delivery programme, which is in line with the average estimated cost of a double deck non-NBfL hybrid of £334,400 over the same period. This small price difference will be more than compensated by fuel savings over the life of the vehicle. Just focussing on prices ignores its additional features, including better fuel efficiency, very low emissions, and the fact it will accelerate development of cleaner hybrids of all kinds in the bus industry. Passengers rate the new vehicle very highly and relish the return of hop-on hop-off travel. 'The Greatest City on Earth' (2) Question No: 2013/2259 Caroline Pidgeon In your 2020 Vision you state that transport links tackle social exclusion. Could you please cite your source for this 'fact'? The Mayor The 2020 Vision document refers to the French extending the RER to bring millions of people closer to centres of employment and opportunity, which they see as 'one of the most effective ways of tackling social exclusion'. Nevertheless it is now widely recognised that limitations of the transport system are a major factor in reducing or removing the ability of people living in disadvantaged areas to access key activities and that this is exacerbated by the broader context of a society and environment built around the assumption of high mobility. Following publication of a report on transport related social exclusion by the Government's Social Exclusion Unit in 2003; systematic accessibility planning has been practised in the UK. TfL carried out extensive research into this subject in the late 1990s. This found that at that time around a quarter of London's population suffered a lack of 'connection' with the 'activities and opportunities required to participate fully in society'. While there were many reasons, people's inability to physically access opportunities because of travel difficulties was found to be important. Subsequent evaluation research has identified that public transport improvements in deprived areas have delivered significant improvements in bus patronage and travel uptake, as well as having knock-on benefits in terms of the take-up of new employment, educational opportunities and healthcare visits. Nowhere in the document is it asserted that transport should be seen as the sole means of tackling social exclusion and many other polices are being pursued in this area.