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• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

You knew about that. I mean, everybody knew about the land.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

My final point is this: the people who have been taken for a ride here are the public, aren't they? Part of the design of that bid document was for public consumption, to ensure that opinion polls did not race away against the idea of the Olympic Games in the first place as it might have made us an unpopular venue as far as the IOC was concerned. It was the public that was being lulled into a false sense of security about this when all along the professionals and those who are used to this kind of bidding knew...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

I am sorry, but all that was known and we all knew about the fact that it was also about regeneration. What I am saying is I think the public will feel that they have been taken for a very large ride, particularly when people now say, 'Oh yeah, that was just to win the bid.' It just does not allow the public to feel very confident that they are being treated like grown ups, does it?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

This is a question to David Higgins. There was something you said earlier and I just want to go back to it very briefly. I recognise that you came to this after the initial stage, after we had won the bid but I find it vaguely depressing when you say, as you have done in the past, 'Oh yes, well, the plans for the Aquatics Centre - it was all a bit vague. That was in the bid document in order to help us win the bid.' Don't you think that it actually brings the whole process into disrepute, that...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

We were assured at the time by the Mayor and everybody else that that was a robust costing. So you can imagine how depressed we feel when it turns out not to have been anything of the sort.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Speaking for all my colleagues, we would like very much to welcome your recognition that target setting can end up being slightly a useless box ticking exercise. We appreciated hearing that from you. On the issue of skilled workforce, obviously we are all concerned to ensure that we get as much up-skilled training as possible to ensure the London workforce can take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the Olympics. One slight query here; is there not also a slight problem that, of course, the building of the Olympic site is also taking place alongside many other major building...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Thank you for that. It is a bit confusing, I think, certainly because there are all sorts of budgets running around as well as your own and the outstanding costs to the LDA. The £2.375 billion figure which was cited as being the `guesstimate' for the infrastructure costs is probably not a firm figure and if anything ' and you obviously cannot commit yourselves to say what it will be ' you are saying it is not a firm figure and costs could go higher than that. Therefore Vincent Cable, who quoted you in that debate in Westminster Hall not...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Thank you. Clearly this is an ongoing situation and we have not reached that point yet where we can have an absolutely clear figure; I appreciate that. Obviously we are hoping that you will keep us up to date as you continue. Just a final question; I think we understood from comments made by Richard Caborn MP {Minister of State (Sport))about the LOCOG budget that that had to be raised because of inflationary costs. I wonder whether that is going to be a significant factor in your `guesstimates' 'inflation, which who knows what it might be going up to '...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Angie Bray (AM): You can appreciate, of course, that Londoners might well be interested in having some kind of comfort on this. Clearly people can come along and say `Yes, actually, if we spend a bit more now we can get a better a legacy'. There has to come a point when you say we cannot go on concerning ourselves about legacy if it is actually going to mean that the costs continue to rise. I wondered if there was any kind of comfort there that you could offer Londoners at this stage?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Just one final query. I think what we feel is that part of the problem with the original bid document is that so much of it seems to be providing firm assurances on a set of figures and of course what we are learning now is that those figures were not nearly as firm as they might have been presented at the time. Clearly there will be concern about the fact that all these new factors are being built in.