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Top-level Talks on Road Finance
Page 50
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BY OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT
THE Minister of Transport has already had talks with the Chancellor of the Exchequer about the effect of the new expenditure cuts on the road programme. It is still too early to say how the programme will be affected, but there are strong hopes that the same amount of money will be forthcoming, and perhaps more in succeeding years.
Transport Prospers in Birmingham
A LD. L. Chaffey, chairman of BirmingrA ham Transport Committee, was in high spirits when he announced that the profits of the department for the past year had gone up to nearly 1300,000. The drift away from bus travel in the city had been reduced and nearly £4m. in loan charges had been paid off in five years, he added.
" If it was a private enterprise the directors would be cock-a-hoop over the results," he commented. The improvements had been made in the most difficult circumstances and with a shortage of crews which at present amounted to 1,000,
He praised the department's officers for their constant search for economies, and forecast that £500,000 would represent the outstanding loan charges at the end of the next year. When that figure was met the undertaking would be left with capital assets, in the form of buses and garages, worth £10m., he stated.
THREE MONTHS' SUSPENSION FOR USER VIOLATIONS
FOE operating two vehicles outside the terms of his normal user declaration, Mr. W. Ellis, Elgin, Morayshire, had one vehicle suspended for three months by Mr. A. Robertson, Scottish Deputy Licensing Authority. at Aberdeen last week.
Drivers' records which were produced showed that over a period of three months one vehicle had worked to the extent of 90 per cent, outside the declared normal user, and the other to the extent of 78 per cent.
VUE regret to record the deaths of
W V MR. J. D. MCGIBBON and MR. CLIFFORD J. HLTDSON.
Mr. McGibbon, who operated a number of bus services in the Dundee area, was 41.
Mr. Hudson, who joined Small and Parkes, Ltd., as a representative in 1927, retired last November. He was 67.
SPECIFICATIONS AVAILABLE -THE ninth edition of "British Com• mercial Vehicles for the World" is now available. Compiled by The Commercial Motor, it contains specifications of all British goods and passenger vehicles, including battery-electrics and dump trucks. It costs 3s., 6d. from all booksellers or bookstalls, or 3s. 11d. by post from Temple Press Limited, Bowling Green Lane, London, E.C.1. The Government appreciate now the value of first-class communications to industry, both in connecting industrial areas to speed the transport of components and in getting the exports to the ports as cheaply as possible. One manufacturer, for instance, is said to have commented that the Severn Bridge would save £200,000 a year for his company atone in transporting their goods.
With the worsening trade figures and the increased competition from the European Common Market, anything that will help to cheapen our exports is valuable, and fast roads will have a big effect.
There is another thing to consider. It is pointless to begin a big project if there are uncertainties about its completion. British road history is over-full of instances of that. County councils have assembled staffs of road engineers and the contractors have their machinery available.
Serious Trouble One thing is certain. There will be big trouble in Parliament if there is any wavering in the road programme, and the trouble will come from the Government's side as well as the OppositiOn.
We can expect more experiments on tidal flows next year, but they will be on a small scale. The great difficulty has proved to be that of cross-traffic. Flyovers, temporary or otherwise, are the answer, but again it is a question of money. Passing stretches. on the big arterial roads would be the answer to many problems—money again!
Mr. Ernest Marples, the Minister, is still considering the objections to the draft scheme for the London-Yorkshire motor road, he told Mr. B. Janner (Lab., Leicester North-west). Construction cannot begin until the remaining statutory processes have been completed and the necessary funds are available.
Simpler Drivers' Records Mr. Marples is considering proposals put to him by the British Road Federation for a " once-for-all " drivers' record in cases where C-licence vehicles arc engaged in regular deliveries, or servicing agricultural machinery and the like.
Mr. Wingfield Digby (Cons., Dorset West) had asked him whether he would consider the case for a "once-for-all" record restricted to such cases in which the daily records seldom varied, while at the same time giving adequate protection to employees.
Mr. Marples has refused the suggestion of Mr. Sydney Irving (Lab.. Dartford) for legislation for the registration of driving schools, but said be was reviewing the whole matter most carefully in connection with road-safety plans.