East End questions for Mayor

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has staged a People's Question Time in the East End in which he told residents they are set to enjoy an economic boom.

The meeting at Newham Town Hall, attended by about 400 people, comes nearly 18 months into Mr Livingstone's term of office at a time when he is under pressure to deliver like never before. His two biggest pledges - to improve the Tube and to introduce congestion charging - remain unrealised.

It was these issues that dominated the agenda; questions about a worldwide recession or the possibility of how London would cope in the event of anthrax or chemical attacks took a back seat. Instead, the "ordinary" people that Question Time is aimed at stuck largely with the "ordinary" concerns of Londoners.

What was the Mayor doing to provide better public transport before congestion charging came in? Did he really think that anybody in their right mind would take the bus instead of their car?

When would there be extra police on the streets of east London's suburbs? And how about providing more affordable homes?

And the answers? On improvements in public transport to compensate for congestion charging, the Mayor pointed to 200 extra buses. Motorists might be reluctant to take them at first, he said, but soon the bus would no longer be seen as a "second class" mode of travel.

There was similar good news for policing, he added. An extra 1,000 officers this year, plus the same next year - so many that Hendon Police Training College could not take anymore. All would be on the beat in London's boroughs. For housing, Mr Livingstone pointed out that while his policy on affordable housing had not quite achieved its desired rate of 50 per cent of all new homes, it was still a vast improvement.

On the terrorist threat facing Londoners and its impact on the economy, Mr Livingstone offered only a brief and simple comment: "I personally am satisfied that everything we can do to make the city safe is being done. Don't get depressed that something terrible is going to happen - you are more likely to be killed walking down the road, and we shouldn't let something like that ruin our enjoyment of the city."

For those who might struggle to afford to do so, he saved his best bit of good news. The East End would soon become London's new boom zone as the East London Line, CrossRail and Hackney to Chelsea line finally brought prosperity and development after decades of neglect by planners.

"This is going to be the most dramatically changing part of Britain, possibly the whole of Europe over the next decade," he said. His closing remarks included what sounded suspiciously like a get-out clause: "All governments have neglected London, and whoever is Mayor will have to fight to get much more resources."

Nonetheless, a straw poll by the Evening Standard found the majority of visitors to People's Question Time were impressed, even if the Mayor's answers were not what what they wanted to hear. "I thought he was brilliant - he gave clear answers to questions," said Ted Mulcahy, 51, from Havering.

"He was quite informative - he seemed quite a genuine bloke," added Andre Ellis, 22, from Barking. More seasoned observers, however, were less enthusiastic. Ludlow Smith, a former councillor from Spitalfields, said: "It was a good performance - but a lot of it was a wish list."