§ Letter and Note from Lord Marsh to the Chairman
§ Just over a year ago, the Group arranged a structured programme of meetings with the following terms of reference:
§ To inquire into the reasons for the delays in making progress with transport improvements in London, including particularly the institutional arrangements and decision-making processes, and to report.
§ In the course of this programme we held a number of very informative meetings in this and other related areas, including the Minister for Transport, the Mayor of London and the Transport Commissioner for London. We have also received a considerable amount of written material.
§ It became apparent that, to state the obvious, not only is transport one of a number of key elements in shaping London's future, but the unique scale, complexity and interdependence of the other key elements in the Mayor's draft London Plan raise fundamental questions about the ability of the current institutional arrangements and decision making processes to manage the project to a successful conclusion. These include:
§ —the difficulty of achieving delivery of key infrastructure projects
§ —the Mayor's lack of resources to ensure implementation of projects for which he is responsible
§ —the slowness of the planning system
§ —the lack of coherent priorities for resource allocation and institutional blockages likely to obstruct co-ordinated action.
§ I am enclosing a note setting out these issues more fully.
§ Members of the Group are aware that the draft Plan will be subject to an Examination in Public in the spring and that some of the responses to the Regional Government White Paper are likely to touch on some of these issues.
§ We would stress that the Group is not concerned with the wider political issues of regional government. We arc concerned solely with the decision making process and the overall management of the London Plan in its totality to a successful conclusion.
§ The Group is unanimous in its belief that there is an urgent need for a more systematic and authoritative inquiry into this issue and to that end I should welcome the opportunity to make a short presentation, with two of my colleagues, to the Liaison Committee in support of a Select Committee inquiry into the credibility of the structure envisaged in terms of financing and implementation of the draft London Plan.