Question
Question & Answer Session: London's Long-Term Infrastructure Needs (Supplementary) [19]
Keith Prince AM: Thank you, Chair. Deputy Mayor, good morning. A quick question to back up what my colleague, Assembly Member Best, was saying in regards to Havering in the Superloop. There is going to be no Superloop in Havering and I cannot understand why you would not have one of the outer-lying boroughs in your Orbital Plan. You are going to be deleting two bus routes in Havering, so as a result of the expansion of ULEZ there will be fewer opportunities for my residents to use public transport. We are going to be discussing it at a later stage. The only thing I would ask you and I certainly will be making a submission in relation to the consultation, can you please give me an assurance, because I know you are a decent chap, that you will take on board and listen to the consultation and that we will not have the fiasco that was the ULEZ consultation, which clearly said that people in my region and Londoners did not want the expansion of the ULEZ, but that was completely ignored by your boss. I will not lay the blame on you for that. It was your boss who chose not to listen to the consultation. However, will you give an undertaking that you will take on board and that you will listen to the consultation, because myself and my colleagues will be putting forward helpful suggestions.
Answer
Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Assembly Member Prince, you are out of time, I am afraid.
Keith Prince AM: Thank you.
Seb Dance (Deputy Mayor for Transport): I can reply?
Andrew Boff AM (Chair): There is no real time to reply. If I let that happen it opens up the kind of chaos that you really do not want to envisage. You can write to him. Thank you. What are you saying here?
Léonie Cooper AM: We just wondered if we could put the question to Seb about two things, first of all about the fact that the Mayor was asked and then was re-asked and re-asked and re-asked and indicated right from the first asking that he would be unable to come. I wondered if Seb would accept my thanks for being able to be here on behalf of the Mayoralty this morning. Then perhaps he could answer Assembly Member Prince’s question.
Seb Dance (Deputy Mayor for Transport): Thank you. Your thank you is appreciated. Absolutely. We disagree on the ULEZ consultation, obviously. It is not a fair characterisation to say that the feedback was characterised one way or the other. There was a lot of key information in there, including support for measures to address air pollution; however, we will disagree on that. In terms of will I and will TfL take into account, absolutely, 100%. The consultation is there to ensure that the routes that have been planned on the basis of TfL’s best estimation of frequency, support and bus availability and all the rest of it, takes into account the needs of communities along or near the routes. Where it is feasible to put Superloop routes into communities that are in need of additional links and those consultation responses are clear in that, yes, absolutely that will be taken into account.
Andrew Boff AM (Chair): Thank you very much.
Keith Prince AM: Thank you, Labour Group.