Caroline Pidgeon AM, on behalf of the London Assembly Liberal Democrat group, and London Lib Dem Transport spokesperson Tom Brake MP, has submitted a formal response to the Mayor's draft Transport Strategy.
While welcoming some of the Mayor's proposals, the Lib Dems see several areas where the strategy is in need of improvement:
The document contains welcome and useful proposals, some of which need strengthening. Regrettably, important issues that need to be addressed are neglected or omitted.
There are contradictions in the document – measures to promote walking and cycling sit uncomfortably with plans to smooth traffic flow and an absence of plans for pedestrian precincts. The document lacks interim measures of success for the Mayor’s projects: this will make it very difficult for Londoners to hold him to account. To secure new infrastructure investment takes many years of hard work and campaigning. If valuable projects are excluded on the grounds that funding is not currently available, they will never be delivered.
Most important, the document does not face up to setting out priorities in a tight financial climate or in explaining the Mayor’s thinking on the difficult choices he and his successors will have to make. It is not enough merely to present a menu.