Co-ordinating Scottish Transport
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THE establishment of an Economic Planning Council, a Planning Board for Scotland, and the Highlands and Islands Development Board established new machinery for looking at all forms of transport in Scotland in a co-ordinated and comprehensive way, and seeing what would be required for the Highlands in the future.
This was stated in the Commons last week by Mr. Stephen Swingler,. Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, during a debate on transport in Scotland.
The report which the Highland Transport Board would make towards the end of next year—its final report—would be considered by the Government against the background of the White Paper on Scottish economy which would be published early next year, went on Mr. Swingler.
This would enable the Government to come to some conclusions on the future relationship of railway services and the development of road transport in Scotland in a co-ordinated fashion.
But, emphasized Mr. Swingler, there
was no question of organizing and operating railway services in Scotland in order to justify cases for closure.
The debate had been opened by Mr. Gordon Campbell (Tory, Moray and Nairn) who said that broadly the North of Scotland had been affected more than anywhere else in Britain by the increased cost of transport by road, in particular the higher fuel duty and the increased tax on commercial vehicles.