Greater London Authority Bill

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, which demonstrates how our concern on this topic is not with what might seem the arcane and rather formalistic matter of board consultation, but with the actual culture of the organisation of which the board is the head, which underlies the problem. Bus stops and, in particular, the erection of bus shelters in pursuit of a particularly dogmatic interpretation of the Mayor’s transport strategy show once again how the boroughs can be ignored. That is a matter of very real concern to us. Those examples stress the unwillingness of TFL to come out of its own silo and talk or engage with other partners. That is why I hope that the Minister will provide some reassurance that the people appointed under the new provisions will actually speak for London government and London councils. If that assurance cannot be provided, some of us may decide to look into the problem again in other places, as it is not yet satisfactory. Finally, I, too, am saddened by the absence of my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), but I congratulate the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) on having achieved ““the Brake laws””. As those who followed the progress of the Bill in Committee will know, that means that I am going to have to break it—please forgive the pun—to my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath that whereas his mother and mine remain disappointed, the mother of the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington has been favoured by her son managing to get the Minister to give ground. Despite the best of our endeavours and our eloquence, the rest of us have not yet achieved that.