Clause 57 - Orders of the Greater London Authority changing what are strategic roads
Traffic Management Bill
5:15 pm
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Harrow East, Labour)
The London boroughs are fully aware of our intentions, not least because they will have read the Bill with interest, but because I ensured, through the Association of London Government, that they knew exactly what would happen. In my capacity as the Minister for London transport, I have dealt extensively with the Association of London Government and Transport for London. I have about four or five meetings a month with TfL on various subjects, ranging from the tube to a particular roads group.
The Mayor is not, as the hon. Gentleman implied, involved in an elaborate land grab, roughly equivalent to Poland, when it comes to taking over control of roads. By common consent, there are significant highways in London that should be in the TfL network, purely so that it can achieve the network management duty that we will afford it if the Bill is enacted. That is not a case of taking control of roads in perpetuity or expanding the current TfL network. Roads of significant strategic concern will simply be added to the network so that TfL can carry out its statutory duty.