Yesterday was the second reading in Parliament of the GLA Bill. As London Spokesperson I sat in for the whole session trying to get called – and succeeded!

[UPDATE: You can now read my speech on Hansard.]

For me the key is the new planning powers given to the Mayor – for it takes away power from local people and local authorities who know the situation on the ground. Even without extra powers to direct the granting of an application – the Mayoral nose has already been stuck into local planning applications where it wasn’t his business, wasn’t wanted and wasn’t strategic. Result: horrible lowest common denominator development of tower block housing dumped on the most deprived who don’t have fancy lawyers to fight for them – and in Hornsey a concrete batching industrial plant right in the middle of a residential area.

And at both those enquiries the lawyers at appeal were able to wave letters of approval from the Mayor – who at this point has no actual power but whose influence is used by developers as carte blanche for their profit.

I support the Bill and the devolution – but we have to have checks and balances on the Mayor so that he can’t drive through what he wants without local people having their say to him – and without making sure public services and infrastructure can cope with the new developments he wants. Currently, we we get warm words but no infrastructure – just broken promises.

I also suggested that when conditions are applied to a mayorally driven granting of a planning application – it should be the Mayor that foots the bill for ensuring that conditions are implemented and enforced – not the local authority that turned it down in the first place. Grrrrrrrr!