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• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Well, I would have thought that the purpose of the LDA was to provide London with jobs and economic development. Personally, I do not really see the rationale for spending so much money which could have been directed elsewhere, to jobs for young people, whatever, on the Caribbean Showcase, when the Notting Hill Carnival was going on at the same time. I cannot make that connection, I am afraid. I just think that it is extraordinary that you should spend the money in this way.

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

That equates to a very neat and tidy solution. You move the allotment holders off to Marsh Lane for a period of approximately seven years, I understand, and then you move them back to another site approximately close to where they are now. Unfortunately it is not going to work terribly well because it takes over seven years to establish a new allotment site. Frankly, if the plot holder is going to be facing two moves within seven years, a lot of them will simply give up. Perhaps the diehards will carry on, but I do not see that this...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

May I put something to you? Here is a quotation from the Olympics designers, `What makes architecture exciting is the ultimate connection with everyday life, communities, topographies, things that are already there. We talk about growing rather than deploying projects. This comes out of an interest in discovering, experimenting rather than producing or perfecting what we know'. That is Farshad Masali, the Olympic designer. Now a little bit of out of the box thinking could surely do something. What you are proposing is, levelling the land, reducing it by eight metres and building a concrete path, a massive great concrete...

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

And that site, in fact, is rubble from World War 2, with just a brief covering of topsoil, so quite how successful it will be as an allotment site is open to question. What we are destroying here is an allotment site which has been there for nigh on 100 years and was left in perpetuity by Major Villiers to allotment holders.

• Reference: 2006/0129-1
• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

In response to the Environment Committee's Dereliction of Duty? report on brownfield development, the LDA committed to 'review of information on brownfield sites in London to establish the length of time sites have remained vacant and their potential for future use'. Can you update me on progress on this review?

• Reference: 2006/0135-1
• Question by: Dee Doocey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

You currently sponsor London Fashion Week through Creative London. Do you believe that it is appropriate for the London Development Agency to fund an event that promotes an unhealthy and unnatural image to young girls and women?

• Reference: 2006/0137-1
• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

What does the concept of sustainable development mean in practice to an agency whose remit is essentially economic? Please give one example of the difference made by the LDA's stated commitment to sustainable development.

• Reference: 2006/0143-1
• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Would the LDA knowingly provide funding to a company that registered with Companies House that was shown as "dormant"?

• Reference: 2006/0228-1
• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

The LDA has said that the 100-year-old Manor Gardens allotments in Newham, bequeathed by Major Villiers to be allotments in perpetuity, will have to be concreteted over to make way for a footpath needed for the four week 'green' Olympics. Manor Gardens is all about exactly what Ken Livingstone always says he's trying to encourage - healthy living, social inclusion, sustainability, eco-living, encouraging a sense of togetherness among a diverse local community. These allotments are an oasis in the middle of an industrial desert, and a real lifeline for many. Is there not some way in which destruction of this...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 07 December 2005

Perhaps I will put the question this way: would it be unfair to say that the LDA has done a reasonable job in difficult circumstances?