Clause 8 - Olympic Transport Plan
London Olympics Bill
4:15 pm
Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I would be interested if the Minister would be prepared to make public the briefing notes from which he delivered that speech. I suspect that what his officials gave him might have been rather different from what he delivered. Never mind, he delivered what he did.
I say to the Minister in the gentlest way possible that I think that it is slightly beneath him to accuse me of being critical of his officials. I was not critical of his officials; I was critical of the Minister for getting it wrong. His officials have done a fantastic job and I have a good working relationship with them. I hope that he will not carry out his threat in any way to undermine the good working relationship that I and the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent have with his officials.
His answer was frankly a load of old baloney. It was a pathetic attempt to get out of a statement that has been made and I suspect that had I tabled an amendment to insert '',for example,'' after
''Before preparing or revising the plan the Authority shall consult'',
the Minister would not have accepted that either, although that is in effect what he has told us that the clause is meant to do.
Nevertheless, we have an assurance from the Minister that these bodies will have the opportunity to be consulted, and I am sure that they will be. It is a pity that they were not on the list, if he is going to have one. However, with the Minister's assurances and as we want to make rapid progress, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 8 ordered to stand part of the Bill.