Operating Aspects of
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Passenger Transport
APROPOSAL which has been made to the Earsdon (Northumberland) Urban District Council for a conference of local! authorities to consider the maintenance of bus services is being referred to the Tyneside Regional Committee for the control of bus traffic.
The proposal is based on Section 5 of the Road Traffic Act, and was made by Mr. R. G. Hunter, a member of the board. He suggested that a conference of local authorities in the area from the Tyne, on the south, to. Morpeth, on the north, should be called to consider the situation.
According to the Road Traffic Act, Mr. Hunter pointed out, local authori
ties had power jointly to operate and maintain bus services by a series of joint committees. Local authorities, he said, bad co-operated in the efficient maintenance of joint hospitals and joint sewerage boards, and there was no reason why that spirit should not be extended to the provision of roadtransport facilities. The expense of a Parliamentary Bill, a stumbling block in the aipirations of many local authorities desirous of establishing municipal bus services, would not now have to be faced. The approval of the Traffic Commissioner for the area was all that was required.
Another view is that if co-operation with other local authorities in the provision of local bus services failed, some arrangement could be made with the existing concerns.
It was agreed to refer the proposal to the Tyneside Regional Committee so that the representatives of the local authorities in the county, connected with the committee, could consider the scheme. It is felt that opinions will iu this way be received which will be helpful in the further discussion of the proposal in the near future.