• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorWatch

London News and Comment

  • NEWS
  • COMMENT
  • CONTACT
  • Twitter

Sadiq and Val Shawcross must clean out the mayoral mates and silent vested interests which clog up the TfL board

June 8, 2016 - Martin Hoscik@martinhoscik

Over the summer Mayor Sadiq Khan and Val Shawcross, his Deputy Mayor for Transport, will be assessing applications from those interested in joining the new Transport for London board.

Under both Ken and Boris the board – with a few honourable exceptions – has been too much of a rubber stamp, committed to little more than ensuring the mayor gets his way, so schemes and policies have tended to get nodded through with little objective scrutiny.

Ken’s see-sawing fares changes never seemed to hit much turbulence when they went to the board for discussion and no-one during the Boris era questioned the continued orders for a bus which was causing severe discomfort to passengers.

But one of the board’s most significant failures – and the clearest sign that it wasn’t on the side of farepayers – was its abject failure to publicly criticise managers who endlessly press released that Barclays had doubled its cycling sponsorship despite having no contact committing the bank to pay up.

In pretty much any other public or private organisation such failure would’ve been investigated by the board and senior heads would’ve been at risk of a lopping off.

But at TfL there was deafening silence and it was left to Assembly Members to make the necessary fusses. Such indulgence of management and mayors by the board cannot continue.

Transport will of course always be at the core of what TfL does. But over this mayoral term the agency will become increasingly focussed on its commercial activities and property development as it looks to boost non-fares revenue and help deliver the mayor’s housing commitments.

And even in its central transport role, how TfL engages with passengers and farepayers is changing.

The move away from paper ticketing puts it at the forefront of the UK’s wider shift towards a cashless society while the need for cycle hire users, contactless card holders and Oyster users to interact with it online makes the agency a very sizeable ecommerce retailer.

To competently oversee these changes in focus and interaction, the board needs to include fewer mayoral mates determined to nod through schemes which later cost taxpayers money to put right, and a lot more expertise from relevant sectors.

Luckily the new mayor appears to understand this.

During the election he told me that the body needed “expertise in finance, in tech, in customer service, in addressing the issue of safety on public transport and in revenue streams” in order to properly deliver for Londoners.

Hopefully Sadiq and his deputy also recognise that it’s time to end the gimmicky appointments of special interest groups. Private hire operators and the black cab trade are important stakeholders but they have no place around the board table. Ditto for cyclists who have been clamouring for a seat.

As TfL has confirmed to me, members cannot vote on issues in which they have a vested interest so appointing people on £18k a year only to force them into silence when their specialist topic comes up for discussion ultimately helps no-one.

Instead of including tokenistic, PR-based appointments, the newly constituted board should improve how it consults with key stakeholder groups – something it should do separately to TfL’s management – and invite them to speak at meetings when issues affecting them are being discussed.

This is not revolutionary stuff – the old Met Police Authority used to give members of the public and stakeholders the chance to address it and the fire authority allows the London Fire Brigades Union to speak at its meetings.

If the Khan-era TfL is to successfully deliver the (in some cases, long overdue) changes forced on it by government spending cuts and the mayor’s fares freeze, he and Val need to leave gimmicky appointments and jobs for mayoral mates in the past and instead fill their board with world-class experts from who managers can learn.

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

RECENT UPDATES

Sadiq Khan announces extra £50m to clean up commercial fleets and taxis

Sian Berry selected as Green Party’s 2020 candidate for London Mayor

London Underground introduce new ‘Here to Help’ vests to boost staff visibility

Government awards London £7m for new electric buses




Popular

TfL urged to explore Tube station sponsorship deals after poll shows public backing

TfL confirms plans to axe of shorten dozens of London bus routes

Noise from London’s heliport could pose health risk to residents says study

Social housing tenants gain veto over estate demolitions after new City Hall rules come into effect

FEATURED

TfL planning return of annual fare hikes as agency looks to balance books following Crossrail delay

TfL set to extend Cubic’s contactless fares licensing deal after netting £15m in royalties in just two years

TfL warns budget cuts could force it to close key roads, tunnels and bridges

Transport for London tells board it lacks the cash to deliver Sadiq’s transport vision

GOT A STORY?

As the original London news and scrutiny site we've been casting an eye over the capital's public services and politicians since 1999.

 

Many of our top stories started with a tip-off from a reader - if you've got something you'd like us to cover get in touch and we'll do the rest.

Stay In Touch

  • E-mail
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2019 MayorWatch Publications Limited · MayorWatch is Registered Trademark · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy

MayorWatch Publications Limited · 20-22 Wenlock Road · London N1 7GU · Company Number 6291816

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.