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Tyneside PTA row Newcastle claims political rigging
Page 37
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by Derek Moses
• Following the announcement last week that Mr. Richard Marsh has made orders establishing the first four Passenger Transport Areas as from April 1, comes news of a "row" between representatives of the City of Newcastle and the Ministry of Transport. It is the retention of the revised representation for Tyneside, proposed by Mr. Marsh in his circular letter of October 30. as opposed to the original representation put forward last July, which has angered the city council.
The chairman of the traffic, highways and transport committee, Ur. Neville Trotter, claims that some local authorities have been divided to ensure a grouping which will give the, PTA a Labour majority. Under the July proposals, the Tyneside Authority would have■comprised eight Conservative and Independent members, six Labour and two appointed by the MoT. The October proposals, now confirmed, will establish an Authority with eight Conservative and Independent members, nine Labour and two Ministry appointments.
Longbenton and Gosforth have been grouped with Newburn (Labour), which has no physical connection with the other two authorities. Driving a wide wedge between Gosforth and Newburn is Castle Ward (Conservative) which has been grouped with Blaydon, Ryton and Whickham on the south side of the Tyne opposite Newburn, together with part of Hexham rural area. CUL Trotter claims that this "transposition" of Castle Ward is a deliberate one to ensure a Labour majority on the PTA.
In this connection he has the full backing of the Conservative-controlled Newcastle City Council, whose 350-strong bus fleet will be absorbed by the PTA and form the largest nucleus of bus operation in the new Tyneside Area. Cllr. Trotter became well-known last year when leading an attack by the council opposing a takeover of the city's buses.
When the Transport Bill became law he was in the news again when he wrote to the Minister of Transport conceding defeat and offering "co-operation in establishing the new Tyneside PTA and making it work smoothly" (CM November 1 5). Somehow the name of Neville Trotter became synonymous with the chairmanship of the new PTA.
However, he told me on Friday that he appeared to be politically unacceptable to the local Socialists who would now control the Authority, even though Newcastle upon Tyne's five nominees would be Conservatives. He admitted that he was "very disappointed" but the new grouping would split the local council representatives when voting for a chairman. The new Authority would get off to a bad start, which was unfortunate.
The secretary of the Labour opposition on Newcastle City Council, Cllr. Ned Oxley, has been reported as saying that Tyneside was mainly Socialist and it was inevitable that Labour representatives would control the Authority. No pressure had been put on the Minister to prevent Cllr. Trotter's chairmanship.
Cllr. Trotter also told me that Newcastle would not be properly represented on the PTA. The City would have one member for every £1 0,000 of expenditure while the other authorities would have one member per £8,000. The railway losses also appalled Cllr. Trotter who said that the deficit on the local lines was now £900,000—equivalent to a 6d rate.
As for the setting-up of the PTA, on April 1 or the earliest convenient date thereafter, the continued on page 45