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• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

Hopefully by Christmas there will not be people living within the Olympic Park who will be subject to such immediate environmental challenges and problems. However, for the wider community, including people I represent across East London and including Jennette's [Arnold] constituency in Hackney and beyond, I think people would be a lot more reassured if we go back to the point that was made earlier about transparency; if there was a clear transparency about environmental information about dust levels and about pollution issues. I know I have been intimately involved in the issue about radioactive waste, for example, and I...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

The Mayor of London has expressed the argument in this way; that you could effectively deliver a no frills Olympic Games within the £2.375 billion envelope that was originally posited, but that in order to enhance the regeneration benefit additional sums of money are available. Now obviously he is a politician so perhaps he would put it that way. You are project people. Would you fundamentally agree with that analysis or do you think there are areas where even to deliver a no frills Olympics the pressures on the £2.375 billion are such that it would be difficult to provide...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

I do not share Mr Pope's anxiety yet about the East London Line and North London Line, but I do have an anxiety about Stratford domestic station. I note from your eyebrows that you might have such an anxiety as well. To what extent do the Olympics require its reconstruction, and would you agree that there is, at present, a fairly substantial risk in that we do not understand the full costs of reconstructing the station?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Would you agree then that the risk is that in the worst case one would have to do that with unknown costs associated? Assuming we can get the current owners to rearrange the station, part of the problem is it is a large Victorian structure which needs to have new subways and walkways and connections and escalators and so onput into it. Would you agree that the big risk at present is that the initial estimates for that cost were way below what the current numbers suggested might be costing?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

What would you say, then, to a student from Malmesbury, or their parents, who say `Well we have seen this before, and the whole area fills up with expensive housing which we could not even dream of buying? On balance, a lot of the jobs we used to rely on disappeared from the area and we seem to be down on the deal'. How are you going to play your part in making sure that is not the case?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

No example, then, of an issue where you are presented with such a conflict?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

I have a supplementary question about transparency and accountability. Are you going to make sure that all of your board papers are published on the internet so people can understand these issues, and can you give an example of an issue where there is pressure from one or more of the local authorities which is presenting a challenge in terms of your corporate objectives to meet the delivery targets for the plan for the Olympics?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

I suppose I should therefore additionally declare, Chair, that I was encouraged to apply to be a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority Planning Committee from several directions but was then not short-listed for it. This is not a cause of personal grief for me, but I would not want there to be any uncertainty at any later date that I had a confusion between my individual interests and those of my role as a representative to the area. The question again, I will state, is that obviously you are appointed by the Government and therefore the appointments were made...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Welcome. I suppose I should declare that I am a Board Member and Deputy Chairman of the London Development Agency, and also the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation. I suppose I should, given the question I am about to ask, declare that I did not apply to be a member of the Board of the Olympic Delivery Authority, but I do notice that there are no local democratically accountable representatives on that board. I am wondering if you would comment on how you are going to make certain the board safeguards those local accountability interests. Brian Coleman (Chairman): Perhaps, Mr...