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• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Do you know, I am flabbergasted by this, Deputy Mayor. You have just told us that these low-energy bulbs are in fact a transitional thing, because LED bulbs are going to come in which are going to be efficient, but at the same time your publicity has told us that these light bulbs are going to have a very long life. Clearly it is quite pointless that they should have a long life if something more permanent is going to come along. It is a bit like somebody trying to sell me a Betamax video recorder! The whole thing is...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

One final thing on this; I believe the whole thing is completely ludicrous. This refers to DIY Planet Repairs. Whenever we switch on any of the computers in this building a big thing comes up with an exclamation mark saying `DIY Planet Repairs'; utterly meaningless. I can well understand why there is an exclamation mark there; this has cost the Council Tax payers of London more than £1.25 million! Can you point to any `DIY Planet Repair' which the Mayor and this campaign have actually achieved?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Of the 30,000 a year that you are predicting?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Mr Watts, that is not actually true. In the Mayor's press release ' which I suppose in this case is Nicky's press release ' a 63% take-up was predicted, which is four million. Your figure bears no relationship to the press release and the fact that you only made available this tiny number of light bulbs suggests that there was never any truth in the matter at all.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

It's very interested to hear you say that all of this is supposed to encourage people to take up these things. The total number of people who have actually taken up the insulation grants so far is barely 3,000 homes of the 30,000. The thing you principally have been trumpeting to make Londoners aware of how they can cut carbon issues has related to the exchange of light bulbs. Now the Mayor in his press release predicted that there was going to be a 60% take up of London's population of that; that is around four million people. I wonder...

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

I am interested to hear you say that all of that was agreed in the summer, because on 24 October you told the Cultural Committee here, `If we can get football clubs in there to help mitigate the operating costs, we will certainly be open to that'. Richard Caborn (Minister for Sport), on 21 October, said in the Guardian, `There is very serious negotiation going on between West Ham and the Olympic Authorities about the stadium'. Are you ruling football in or football out?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

You told us, again in an earlier response, that you have been negotiating with community groups and so on. Are you really telling the Assembly and the people of London that a viable future for the stadium as an athletics venue can be provided on the basis of full time use by local community groups, without a substantial subsidy from something like a premier league football club?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

When did those negotiations terminate?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

In summary, is football in or football out?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 15 November 2006

You told us in your initial response that the IOC was quite clear what the future use of this stadium was going to be. How can it possibly be that you even entered into any discussions at all with West Ham if the future of the stadium is going to be as an athletics stadium?