Plans by the Mayor of London to provide all Londoners with “culture on their doorsteps” have been criticised for having no measurable way to hold him to account over their progress.
Sadiq Khan’s draft culture strategy was intended to protect cultural spaces such as theatres and make sure all Londoners have access to jobs in the creative industries.
But Conservative Assembly Member Shaun Bailey called on the assembly not to approve the strategy when it met yesterday.
He said: “There are no milestones in the strategy and this will make it hard to hold the mayor to account.
“Most of the actions in the strategy have no key performance indicators which say when, how and for who it will be delivered for.
“A culture strategy is a great thing but a strategy without milestones is useless.
“We don’t feel like we have any targets to measure the mayor.”
Conservative Assembly Member Andrew Boff seconded Mr Bailey’s calls.
Mr Boff said: “Is it not reasonable to want to know what successful culture is and what we are doing to address the issue?
“There are lots of lovely words but no targets. The mayor just wants us to rubber stamp things. We can encourage that or stand up for the assembly.”
But assembly members from other parties called for the strategy to be approved.
Labour assembly member Len Duvall said: “I am struggling to see what we should be rejecting this strategy for.”
Green Party assembly member Caroline Russell also accused the Tories of “picking holes” in the strategy.
The assembly voted in favour of the strategy with the Conservative group voting against and the other parties voting for.
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