In parliamentary debates on road maintenance and East Midlands local authorities last night, Andrew Rosindell M.P., Member of Parliament for Romford, made some interventions on the failures of the Greater London Authority.
Local people across Havering pay a fortune for services which are not provided. Change is desperately needed.
I have huge sympathy with what the hon. Lady is saying about the underfunding and lack of support from the Scottish Government, but would she sympathise with me? In the London borough of Havering, we have the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, which take huge sums of money from my constituents, yet we do not see much of it spent in places such as Romford. Roads such as the A12 and the A127, which the Mayor of London is meant to look after through Transport for London, are often neglected. So there is a common theme about these higher authorities that take money away from our constituents, but do not spend it on the people paying the costs.
Andrew Rosindell M.P., Member of Parliament for Romford
The hon. Gentleman says we are finally giving tools to mayors, but does he not agree that it is surely better to give funding directly to local councils to spend on their local communities? If we give it to a mayor, it will get spent across wider areas where the mayor has priorities, but it will not necessarily go to areas where the constituents who we represent need the money spent.
Andrew Rosindell M.P., Member of Parliament for Romford
I commend the hon. Member for what he is saying. The east midlands are a vital region of our country, but I caution him slightly about wanting a regional mayor to take power upwards. In Greater London, our experience is that power in local authorities is actually better. We want local money spent on local people’s priorities. With a regional mayor, the hon. Gentleman may find that the money is not spent on the priorities he hopes for, but that it goes up to one bureaucracy and the priorities of local people are often ignored. That is our experience in the London borough of Havering.
Andrew Rosindell M.P., Member of Parliament for Romford
