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• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 10 November 2007

Yes, you are absolutely right. London generates an enormous amount of wealth - according to the London Chamber of Commerce about £13 - £20 billion - which is then taken by the Government and used to subsidise the rest of the country, if not Scotland. We can certainly do with more money. As far as Crossrail is concerned, the Mayor has said that is probably the most important project, even more important than the Olympics. Nevertheless, the Government still found themselves with a shortfall of over £300 million and turned to the City to stump up yet more money in...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

Will the review also include assessments for the value of brownfield sites for biodiversity, flood management and community and recreational use as well as just development use, because one of points we made in our scrutiny report was that actually brownfield sites sometimes have far more amenity value and environmental value than greenfield sites?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

At the moment how does the LDA ensure that the community value and the environmental value of brownfield land is taken into account in development decisions currently?

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 11 October 2006

OK. Our research a year ago showed that around 11 per cent of brownfield land in London had no planning permission on it at all, so that is an area around the size of Hyde Park that at the moment no-one has got a clue what to do with. Is that figure still roughly the same according to your information?

• 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: 2006/0228-1
• 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...