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Minister hopes for operator consultation

17th November 1972
Page 58
Page 58, 17th November 1972 — Minister hopes for operator consultation
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Local government re-organization would confer on the new councils the widest planning power for transport ever. This was said by Mr John Peyton, Minister for Transport Industries, when he addressed the annual dinner of the Public Road Transport Association in London on Thursday of last week. He went on: "I hope the new bodies will consult operators and ask their advice."

Mr Peyton began his speech by saying that a Parliamentary Bill on revised road service licensing — which he foreshadowed when speaking at the PRTA's dinner in 1971 — had once again been delayed. The cheers which greeted this announcement were stilled when Mr Peyton revealed that it remained his intention to introduce legislation.

Mr Peyton described 1972 as a year of achievement for passenger vehicle operators, with better trading results, more buoyant revenue returns and a lessening in the declining numbers of passengers.

Mr Peyton said it was desirable that public transport became quicker, more reliable and more comfortable. "Seating should not be designed only for the very thin or the legless", he said.

Replying to Mr Peyton, Mr D. S. Deacon, chairman of the PRTA, said that all too often the administration of planning was left to "those experts whose main concern is to establish their own academically based theories". Mr Deacon welcomed Mr Peyton's comments about operator consultation. He said: "All too often the operator is consulted reluctantly, too late or not at all." He said that views PRTA members expressed were not those of a narrow or vested interest. Eight out of every nine passenger journeys made on public service vehicles in 1970 were made on vehicles which were in some form of public ownership.

Speaking of the Government's as yet unannounced plans for road service licensing, Mr Deacon said: "We do most earnestly hope that nothing will be prematurely done to put at risk the stage carriage network now provided."


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