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Greater London Authority Bill

This is a fascinating discussion. Clause 2 on consultation, under the heading ““The Mayor's strategies””, refers to the consultation that the Mayor must undertake with the Assembly over the functional bodies. There is no question that this consultation should take place with anyone else. There is no suggestion there that there should be a consultation process for discussing and conducting a consultation with—good gracious—members of the public, the electors who are affected. There is nothing in the clause that widens the process out to the public. I used the congestion charge as an example simply because it still rankles, firmly and squarely, in my borough. Yes, modifications were made, but they were marginal and simply stopped people being trapped in a no-man's-land. So there were reasons behind that.