There is an immense furore amongst some commentators who have objected to the Conservative Group's walkout at the Assembly meeting on 8th June prior to considering the motions.
The walkout was part of ongoing action that the Group is taking in response to the Labour, Lib Dem and Green party groups voting en-block to exclude Conservatives from taking up the committee chairmanships, thus depriving the 40% of Londoners who voted for us a voice. This action will continue and will not be announced in advance.
At the meeting we fulfilled our role in scrutinising the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor's new planning chief and received petitions to the Authority.
The motions are proposed by individual members and are not scheduled by the Assembly as a whole. One of those motions was to debate the issue of the speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge.
Motions at the London Assembly do not bind the GLA or any of its agencies to any course of action. The walkout does not, as has been asserted by some correspondents, put cyclists at risk.
The Conservative group has debated, and probably will continue to debate, the issue of the speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge. If anything, the walkout has attracted more attention to the issue than if we'd stayed.
