Monday morning (17/07/2017) took place the Public Hearing of Mr. Peter Hendy to the role of Chairman of the LLDC. The issue of Conflict of Interest with was raised at the very end of the hearing, minute 50:00 by the Green Party representative, Caroline Russell (watch here: https://www.london.gov.uk/confirmation-hearing-2017-07-17) We were baffled to hear that Mr. Hendy openly admits to potential conflicts of interest, but seems to believe that’s it ‘OK’, because he “declared it”. He then went on to offer zero guidelines, statements, or even hints as to how he intends to handle such inevitable conflicts. Even More baffling was the fact that no one on the committee seemed to think that this is an utterly unacceptable answer, or push Mr. Hendy in any way to provide more material answers using real case examples, such as for example the Concrete & Asphalt planning applications in Bow Yard. Let us be very clear on the matter: Mr. Hendy wasn’t elected to this public office – he was appointed by Mayor Khan. Peter Hendy has enormous powers that can have dramatic impact on our collective future, yet none of us voted for him or have any idea what his policies and stands are on any of the issues that matter to us. We believe that as the public we have the right to demand that Mr. Hendy – a public servant - recuses himself from any future dealings with Network Rail including the Bow Yard Concrete/Asphalt applications, and that he resigns from his position as Chairman of Network Rail immediately. His recusal and resignation won’t solve any potential ‘institutional’ bias issues which unfortunately cannot be measured or quantified adequately, but it will send a loud and clear message about what should be acceptable norms of good governance in public office. We will continue to lobby our elected representatives to ensure that Mr. Hendy’s many (potentially conflicting) interests are monitored, and that his actions are kept in check. Furthermore, we wish at this time to echo the strong sentiment of many of us in East London that the LLDC has outlived its original mandate and that it is now time to look into devolving its powers back to the local authorities who, as electable councils, are better positioned to relate to the public they represent. OPCRD