Search questions

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you for that. Clearly, it is a bit like the situation with local businesses, that although there may be a range of formal commitments which are very well detailed and set down, individual people and interest groups might have difficulty understanding how they get into the structure of the Olympics. Say your road is stopped up, because there is some work taking place, or some development happens at the end of your street for the Olympics, and you do not really understand who to go to, or why it is happening. How is that mechanism going to work?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

One final question, and I can ask this by posing a possible answer, I suppose: who should hold the Olympics to account? Potentially, the Olympics board holds it to account; the ODA holds it to account; the LDA holds it to account; and the London Assembly and each of the individual boroughs might consider they have to. There is a Select Committee of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) which might want to, as well. Is there potentially a real messy soup of accountability, out of which everyone will want a soundbite, but no one will actually wrestle...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

It is just a quick one following on from the issues John (Biggs) has raised. This is about representation and perception. The ethnic diversity of London was, quite rightly, acknowledged within the bid, and our presentation team and the inclusion of the athletes made the work to date, if you like, ethnically representative. It does, however, concern me that if you look at the people now lining up to sit in the seats of power ' the ODA, LOCOG, the Olympic Board ' all I expect to see is white men in suits. Are you as concerned as I that...

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you, Mayor. One council leader that I have recently spoken to was very keen to see the refurbishment of much of the leisure facilities in their local authority. I am just wondering if, on the back of the Olympics, you can see a vehicle for this occurring. In some ways, if there is an upgrading of facilities, it would be quite astonishing if at one end of town we have elite sports facilities, and at the other we still have grotty facilities, which most residents have to live with.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

That is what worries me. That is the trouble.

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you for that answer, Mayor, but I have three areas on which I would just like to pin you down. Can I just start with cultural education. I welcome that announcement that you have just made about the commitment following the Games for the maintenance of the Park, because it seems to me that we can judge whether an Olympics was successful in two ways: the gold medals and all their absolute wonder of the sport, and also we judge when we look back at where the Olympic Games were held, and what it is like there following the...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

I am sure you will get a lot of support for that position. Can I just move on then to health? Currently, Londoners are less physically active than the average for England, and certainly, London's children and young people have a higher level of obesity than other regions in England. A health impact assessment study commissioned by the London Health Commission has demonstrated the potential for the longer-term health benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. Could you just tell us, briefly, how can you ensure that these are delivered? What about health? How can we get the legacy for a...

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you. Clearly, work is being done, but I read in the Paralympic Games bid document that the catchment area for the Paralympics is 30 million people across much of southern England within a day trip of the Games. Therefore, what is going to be done about helping people with any kind of disability across that catchment area, particularly if they rely on mainline rail services? What plans are in place for that situation?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Will you set them objectives or targets?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 08 September 2005

Thank you. On getting into London itself and the fact that it is going to be a very broad-based Games, we know that we have real problems in access for people with disabilities to our public buildings. Indeed, a recent statement in Disability Capital states that only 17% of public buildings in London are accessible. What plans are in place for involving disabled people in the cultural Olympiad?