Boris Johnson will appear before the London Assembly this Wednesday for his regular Mayor’s Question Time grilling.
The Mayor is expected to use the meeting to give more details of the finalised London Development Agency funding announced last week by Chief of Staff Sir Simon Milton.
Last week Sir Simon told Assembly Members the Mayor had secured £388m for development projects in the capital over the next 3 years, this figure includes the £56m per year already announced and replaces the LDA’s previous £480m annual budget.
As always, the Mayor will face questions from AMs on a range of topics including the impact of Government spending cuts on the capital.
Boris’s regular sparring partner John Biggs will ask whether the Mayor will be “marching alongside tens of thousands of Londoners on Saturday as they stand up against Government cuts”.
Fellow Labour AMs Joanne McCartney and Len Duvall will be asking about cuts to policing and the youth justice board while Green Party AM and 2012 Mayoral hopeful Jenny Jones will ask whether the Mayor has enough money to deliver his target of 31,000 new social homes.
Health will also be a major topic for questions at this month’s session with three questions on the topic from Conservative AMs.
Victoria Borwick, who last week secured unanimous Assembly support for a motion condemning plans to close children’s heart surgery unit at the Royal Brompton Hospital, wants Johnson “to support the need for Londoners to have excellent healthcare and surgery which will give them the best possible outcomes”.
James Cleverly wants the Mayor to use his public health responsibilities to tackle the “growing ignorance surrounding HIV-AIDS” while Tory AM Roger Evans will invite him to support a campaign against the closure of A&E services at King George Hospital.
John Biggs will be inviting the Mayor to identify “the greatest risk to Londoners from the proposed health service reforms”.
The Mayor will also face a number of questions on transport with LibDem Caroline Pidgeon wanting to know what action he’s taking to make the Tube more accessible for visually impaired people.
Andrew Boff wants to know whether Boroughs are allowed to spend money provided by Transport for London on speed cushions after the Mayor previously said the cash should not be spent on road humps.
Gareth Bacon will be asking whether TfL carries out traffic impact surveys “when deciding where to position Low Emission Zone signs telling traffic to exit major roads to avoid charging”.
The Mayor can also look forward to a question from Darren Johnson on whether he’ll be revising London’s air quality plan “by 11 June 2011 to include short-term measure” as required by the European Commission as a condition of granting a “temporary and conditional” time extension for the capital to meet EU air quality targets.
Mayor’s Question Time takes place Wednesday 23 March 2011 from 10am in the Chamber at City Hall