Pensions, transport, air quality and cuts – MQT’s in May

Boris Johnson faces questions over the pensions of former Visit London staff members at next week’s Mayor’s Question Time.

The London Assembly is already investigating the placing of the capital’s former tourism agency into administration and the decision of successor body London & Partners not to take on the pension liabilities of transferred staff.

At Wednesday’s meeting the Mayor will be asked by Labour’s Len Duvall if believes he owes “any duty” to those affected or whether he has “simply asset stripped and closed down their employer and ignored their plight”.

Transport dominates this month’s questions with Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon inviting the Mayor to give a hostage to fortune and predict when his cable car will open for passengers.

Labour’s Val Shawcross – running mate to Ken Livingstone in next year’s Mayoral elections – will ask the Mayor what he believes his transport legacy in Outer London will be.

Conservative AM Richard Tracey will give the Mayor another chance to insult ministers by asking whether he believes it’s time for a law “requiring unions…to obtain the support of over 50% of their membership in a strike ballot before industrial action can be called”.

Meanwhile fellow Tory Gareth Bacon will be calling on Johnson to “instruct” Transport for London to cease providing any funding to the Campaign for Better Transport, a group which campaigns for “transport solutions that improve people’s lives and reduce environmental damage.”

London’s air quality is also back on the agenda, Tory grow leader James Cleverly will ask whether a recent EU decision to extend the deadline for the UK to meet air quality targets “is, in part, down to its belief that the Mayor has an effective plan to tackle the problem”.

Less helpfully Green party AM Darren Johnson will ask if the “failure to meet the annual limit of 35 bad air days for PM10 pollutants” has persuaded the Mayor on the case for a very low emissions zone for central London.

Plus, Labour’s ongoing campaign to tie the Mayor to the coalition’s cuts continues with questions on the impact of benefit changes and London Ambulance Service job losses.

The meeting takes place Wednesday 18 May 2011, 10am at City Hall, and is open to the public.

Twitter users can follow @MayorWatch for live coverage of the meeting