Spurned by Ken

Written by Lynne Featherstone and published in Hampstead & Highgate Express on Fri 16th May 2003

Prim but not proper - that's what the Mayor called me at the London Assembly's Transport Committee. In fact he went off on a rant because he didn't like the questions I asked him. He hadn't liked my questions at the previous Mayor's Question time either.

Recently, I have concluded that the Mayor of London is right off me. Given our mutual support for congestion charging and opposition to Labour's hated, expensive and imposed sell off of the tube (PPP) why is he spurning me now?

The questions he seems to really hate are the ones I ask him about his failure to deliver on promises or, even more, on how he intends to improve the tube.

He has had successes - congestion charging and some bus improvements (but with the notable omission and outrageous delay on delivering the Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus route which he supported so enthusiastically when seeking office last time out).

But it is actually the job of the Assembly to scrutinise the Mayor. Inevitably this means looking for what is going badly rather than singing his praises. No prizes for guessing which of those he prefers.

The Assembly has been very strategic and somewhat prescient on the tube issue. Over the last 18 months, we examined and established what standards of service Londoners should reasonably be able to expect on the tube.

The idea being that - whilst undoubtedly stuffed by the contracted standards in the PPP - the Mayor of London must have more to his tube policy than simply reciting "It's not my fault".

He needs to move forward to try and improve on the poor standards we have been stuck with. London simply could not have a Mayor who says that's it - there's nothing I can do!

Research (sadly desk bound rather than in person!) into comparable cities around the world enabled us to set reasonable standards.

Without boring you to death, an example of one such benchmark would be the space standard. What everyone hates on the tube (except perverts) is being pressed closer than we ever wished to the next person.

The standard we have set is 0.25 square metres per person at peak hours (the same as Paris). That means that there should be no more than 4 people sharing a square metre of space. On a bad day, I am still sharing my square metre with about 8 others - so way to go.

These standards are clearly not going to be delivered by the current PPP. In fact the report is called: 'Mind the Gap - the difference between what Londoners want and what Londoners will get'.

Work is going on as I write to establish how far PPP goes towards delivering the standards the Assembly has set.

I have had meetings in the last few weeks with the Chief Exec of Tube Lines (the private consortium now in charge of the infrastructure on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines) and with Bob Kiley, Transport Commissioner for London.

Neither of them dropped dead with horror at thought that the Assembly wants to find ways to improve on the dreadfully low standards the Government put into the PPP contracts.

There could be ways to negotiate within the existing contracts. For example if a way could be found to do maintenance and improvement work on the track and signals round-the-clock, money could be saved and used towards improvements over and above the contracts.

Should, perhaps, part of a tube line be closed completely for a few weeks to allow an intensive burst of refurbishment rather than trying to squeeze the work in during those few hours when no tube trains are running - and so stringing it out over a long time at high cost?

There is a long way to go. Tube Lines have agreed to come to the Transport Committee (of which I am chair again) and we will explore ways forward.

Bob Kiley and Tim O'Toole, the new kid on the Transport for London block brought in to manage the tube, will be trying - as soon as the Government hands over the tube - to begin to make the improvements in management that are actually possible and achievable.

So come on Ken. We know what a bad deal for London the PPP is. It's no use shouting at me 'cos the standards are hard to achieve. Your job as Mayor for London is to push, push, push to achieve better than Labour lumbered you with.