Glasgow to Build Bus Bodies G LASGOW CORPORATION has been grantedpowers
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to build motorbus and trolleybus bodies. The Select Committee of the House of Lords last week concluded its deliberations on the Hilt, which has already passed all its stages in the Commons.
In evidence, Mr. Arthur T. Froggatt, president of the Institute of British Carriage and Automobile Manufacturers and director of MetropolitanCammell-Weymann Motor Bodies, Ltd., said that the industry was capable of dealing with all the requirements of municipal corporations at present and in the future.
Mr. L. Hill Watson, K.C., on behalf of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Scottish Motor Trade Association and others, said this was Glasgow's seventh attempt to get power to build bodies. There had been no material change since the application was first made in 1922. He submitted that it was essential for the motor industry that the main custom should not be taken away from it. If these powers were given to Glasgow Corporation, there was no reason why they should not be granted to any other corporation which applied.
For the corporation, Mr. R. P. Morison submitted that it was entirely proper that a great municipal undertaking like Glasgow should enjoy, up to a point, powers similar to those held by Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester and Sheffield, by the railway companies, and London Transport.
Glasgow transport undertaking was the largest in the country, except London Transport's. There was no undertaking so self-contained as that of Glasgow. It made its own electricity. Beyond the power to make bus bodies, Glasgow had every power which private operators had.
Glasgow had operated its undertakings successfully. There were hundreds of skilled workmen in the well-equipped workshops, These men were trained in building bus bodies.