Minutes 43/07/05 – 51/07/05

MEETING OF MEMBERS OF THE BOARD – OPEN SESSION

MINUTES of the Board Meeting held in The Chamber, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London, SE1 2AA at 10.00 am on Wednesday, 13 July 2005

Present:	Ken Livingstone 
Dave Wetzel
David Begg
Honor Chapman
Stephen Glaister
Kirsten Hearn
Sir Mike Hodgkinson
Paul Moore
John Ormerod
Tony West
	Chair of the Board 
Vice Chair	
In Attendance:	Lynn Sloman
Bryan Heiser
Murziline Parchment
Bob Kiley
Fiona Smith
Jay Walder
Stephen Critchley
Mary Hardy
Maggie Bellis
Ben Plowden
Tim O’Toole
Peter Hendy
Ian Brown
Jeremy Rhodes	Special Adviser to the Board
Special Adviser to the Board
Special Adviser to the Board
The Commissioner of TfL
General Counsel
Managing Director, Finance and Planning
Chief Finance Officer
Director of Internal Audit
Managing Director, Group Services
Managing Director, Group Communications
Managing Director, London Underground Ltd
Managing Director, Surface Transport 
Managing Director, London Rail
For TfL Company Secretariat	
			
At the start of the meeting there was a two minute silence by the TfL Board and the Assembly Members in memory of those who had been injured and lost their lives in the events of 7th July 2005.
		
43/07/05	Apologies for Absence	
	Apologies for absence were received from Patrick O’Keeffe, 
Lord Toby Harris and Sir Gulam Noon.	
		
44/07/05	Declaration of Interests	
	There were no interests declared.	
		
45/07/05	Minutes of the Last Meeting held on 18th May 2005	
	The minutes of the last meeting were approved as a correct record of the proceedings and signed by the Chair.	
		
46/07/05	Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
	
47/07/05	Events of Thursday, 7th July 2005 – Oral Update

The Mayor reported that he and the Commissioner, Bob Kiley, had met to review the events of 07/07.  He added that there had been substantial focus on the role of the emergency services, which tended to overlook the time prior to their arrival, during which time operational staff were in the “front line” dealing with hundreds of injured and frightened people.  Many stories had and continued to emerge and consideration would be given to how best to acknowledge and recognise the response and significant acts of heroism of TfL staff.  Proposals would be made in due course.	
		
	The Mayor stated that the emergency response had gone to plan and it provided a remarkable testament to the Disaster Planning work which had been carried out.

At this point the Commissioner explained that Tim O’Toole and Peter Hendy would provide the meeting with an account of events following the explosions.

The Commissioner emphasised the need to understand the heroism of many members of staff.  He reported that he had visited Edgware Road and had met with 3 small groups, representing a cross section of staff, who had been willing to share their experiences.	

	At Edgware Road many individuals had acted intuitively and the interaction with emergency services represented a superb performance.
The explosions were virtually simultaneous, employees had responded immediately and the evacuation was carried out without further injury.

The Commissioner stated that a debt of thanks was owed to all those staff who participated in the rescue and evacuation and he added that the response of staff underlined the clear benefit of training.

At this point the Commissioner introduced Tim O’Toole, Managing Director of London Underground Limited.

Tim O’Toole thanked the Mayor and Commissioner for going to site. 

Tim O’Toole stated that TfL had distinguished itself in its reaction to the explosions and also in the resilience shown in returning to an almost full service by early the next day.

Tim O’Toole went on to explain the timescale of events, as follows:

The first report had reached NCC at 8.50am, with subsequent reports being logged shortly thereafter.

At 9.03am the ambulance service confirmed that they were en route.  At 9.19am, TfL declared a ‘Code Amber’ for the entire network and in the next hour over 200,000 people were evacuated from the network.  
Tim O’Toole drew attention to the complete misunderstanding in parts of the media regarding ‘Code Amber’.  He emphasised that ‘Code Amber’ was completely irrelevant to getting assistance to the 3 sites – that was already happening.  Calling ‘Code Amber’ had relevance to the remainder of the network and was irrelevant to the disaster sites.

Two stream of work were carried out, one focussing on delivery of emergency resources to the sites and one forward planning, in order to reinstate the network as soon as possible.	
	
Trains were spread across the network and it was necessary to consider how to get drivers to the trains and return them to depots in readiness for the next day.	
	
The emergency services performed a great service, but it was impossible for them to be there immediately in the aftermath of the explosions.  It was TfL staff who took the initial burden of horrific scenes.  The Emergency Response Unit, a division of Tube Lines was on hand at the same time as the emergency services and deserved great credit.

The support of the public and businesses had been superb.

Two branches of Marks & Spencer had provided food, water and clothes to passengers and staff and a letter has been sent to Stuart Rose, 
Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer thanking them for their generosity.

In conclusion, Tim O’Toole described Thursday 07/07 as “an awful day” and said that staff did “a magnificent job”.

At this point Tim O’Toole handed over to Peter Hendy, Managing Director of Surface Transport.  Peter Hendy opened with an expression of sympathy for the bereaved and the injured.

In the days prior to 07/07, TfL had successfully handled Live 8 and the Olympic celebrations.

On 7th July at 8.57am a radio message had been sent to buses to accept London Underground ticket holders as a result of reports of incidents.  The correct emergency procedures were flowing immediately.  

At 9.47am, as a result of a bomb on a Route 30 bus, all bus services in Zone 1 were withdrawn.  Peter Hendy commended the extraordinary work of the bus driver, George Psaradakis who, contrary to press reports, stayed to assist injured passengers.

The excellent relationship with Transport Operational Command Unit and the Metropolitan Police greatly assisted all aspects of the day.

There were remarkable acts on the part of members of staff and certain bus drivers decided of their own volition to drive the injured direct to hospitals.  The TGWU immediately offered help to staff and this gesture was extremely welcome.

•	Following discussions with the Government, a full service was reinstated by around 4pm, although it was impossible to restore 100% of services as diversions were still in operation at incident sites.  Subsequent security alerts continued throughout the day.

•	The Transport Operational Command Unit was fully deployed during evening peak time and there was substantial assistance from the Police.

•	At 11.00am London River Services were suspended for 30 minutes and all piers were checked.  Thereafter, free boats operated throughout the day.  In a number of reported cases, taxi drivers conveyed groups of passengers free of charge.  

•	The central London Congestion Charging was suspended for the day and there was an offer of Access Vehicles from Dial-a-Ride. 

Additional buses were sourced and staff worked very long hours at all levels and contractors behaved as “a community”.  In conclusion 
Peter Hendy stated that we should be very proud of the efforts of all concerned.

Tony West requested that a Board Statement be made expressing sympathy to the bereaved, the injured and their families and an expression of gratitude made towards the employees of TfL and the emergency services.  In addition, he went on to thank the Mayor, Commissioner, Peter Hendy and Tim O’Toole for their leadership. 	

48/07/05

49/07/05

50/07/05

	
Nicky Gavron reported that the London Assembly had passed a motion of thanks to the Emergency Services and TfL.

Audit Committee Report

John Ormerod presented the Report.

He highlighted the comments made on the Investment Programme.

The Committee had reviewed the preparation of the Statement of Accounts, which were submitted to the Board.

He went on to highlight changes in accounting policies arising from the 2004 Statement of Recommended Practice.  Overall, this would lead to a more comprehensive reporting regime in a standard consolidated form.

He drew attention to 3 provisions, namely:

•	£217.7 m relating to contractor claims;
•	£960.7m for the combined deficit on the public sector section of the TfL Pension Fund;
•	Transfer to earmarked reserves.

John Ormerod reported that KPMG, the Auditors, proposed to issue an unqualified audit report for the Statement of Accounts in respect of the year ended 31 March 2005

John Ormerod stated that the Audit Committee endorsed the recommendation of the Chief Finance Officer under Item 6 of the report.

Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2005

The Board approved the Statement of Accounts and authorised the Chief Finance Officer to make any adjustment arising from the ongoing work prior to the Auditors signing their opinion.

The Commissioner reported that the Annual Report would undergo rewriting following the successful outcome of the Olympic bid and the events of July 7th.

A406 Hanger Lane Bridge Replacement Scheme

After consideration, the Board granted its approval in principle to make a Compulsory Purchase Order, if it should become necessary, for the acquisition of all of the land interests, including those at 33 Hanger Lane and Ealing Village and any additional interests that might ultimately be identified, required for the purposes of A406 Bridges Replacement Scheme.  

The Board noted that the final decision to make the Compulsory Purchase Order and what land interests were to be included in any such Order would be taken by the Managing Director, Surface Transport.

51/07/05	Any Other Business
There was no other business raised.   
There being no further business, the meeting was declared closed at 12.05 pm.	

Chair: ___________________________________________

Date:	28th September 2005