00:00 I don't want to do is waste taxpayers money on lawyers and court fees and an
00:04 adversarial system that will lead to not the outcome we receive.
00:09 So we're going to carry on talking to councils, trying to persuade them to do what we
00:14 think is the right thing to do.
00:15 I don't think the powers were put into the GLA Act thinking they would never be used or that using them would not be necessary.
00:22 It is really clear you're meant to take action when your agreed work under your strategy is frustrated
00:28 and I don't think you can sit on the sidelines. You didn't do that with EULAS which was a big strategic issue.
00:34 Londoners need you to stand up for other policies that are affecting their lives as well.
00:38 I asked the Mayor to take stronger and more decisive action over Tower Hamlets Council
00:43 ripping out the low traffic neighbourhood schemes and it's done with the Mayor's money and under the Mayor's strategy.
00:49 The Mayor does have the power to intervene and direct councils not to rip out good schemes and I think he should do that.
00:55 I've written to him formally now to ask him to use the powers that he has under the GLA Act and properly act on those.
01:01 He seemed to give the response that he didn't think these powers were sufficient or would be effective.
01:07 Well this is a test that he actually needs to try and run.
01:11 These powers were not written into the Act for no reason. They weren't written not expected to be used.
01:16 We've got such a clear case here of a council going back on its legal commitments
01:21 and I think the Mayor needs to at least find out if he can use these powers in a way that he should be able to.
01:26 Natalie, you're a Tower Hamlets Councillor. Tell us what the Mayor, the local Mayor has done and what the reaction of residents has been.
01:34 So the Mayor, Luke Ferrarman, has decided in his Cabinet meeting in September to remove the low traffic schemes in Bethnal Green and around Arnold Circus.
01:44 These were the only schemes put in place, some of the only schemes put in place by the previous Labour administration.
01:50 Luke Ferrarman's manifesto clearly states that we open the roads but as we all know low traffic schemes of these types don't actually close roads.
01:59 All roads are still accessible and the residents in Bethnal Green were extremely supportive.
02:05 The consultation run in the run up to this decision was extremely supportive
02:11 and you'd be hard pressed to find any consultation in London that was so supportive of the schemes.
02:17 So it's not just residents, it's also businesses that were also really supportive.
02:21 So in general people in Tower Hamlets were really, really disappointed despite the Mayor having, the local Mayor having won a majority of the election.
02:30 So is the view of Tower Hamlets residents and businesses that they want the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to overrule their local Mayor, Luke Ferrarman?
02:40 So I think the people who are supportive in Tower Hamlets want to do anything that is possible.
02:46 So we're really grateful for Sian's work here at City Hall and we've been pushing for Sadiq Khan, I'm pushing for Sadiq Khan to use his powers in this way.
02:55 So we're also doing other work in Tower Hamlets locally to try and stop this from happening but this is just one of the things that we're pursuing.
03:04 Thank you. And finally Sian, were you a bit disappointed by the sort of sense from Sadiq that he was less enthusiastic at intervening here?
03:12 I was. I think he needs to take a grip on this, that there is such a patchy delivery of schemes across London, some boroughs where virtually nothing is happening.
03:23 It's his job to have this strategic overview, it's his job to listen to Londoners and make sure that we're making progress.
03:29 And all I heard today were excuses for further inaction.
03:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]
