One voice an APPT answer
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by Martin Hayes
• A revised constitution, enabling a more broadly based membership to be admitted, has been agreed by members of the Association of Public Passenger Transport Operators I understand. The move seems designed to attract potential members of the proposed Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport.
Under revised Articles of Association — agreed during an extraordinary agm of APPTO members in Liverpool last month but not yet made public — conditions of membership are revised. In future all sections of public transport could be represented, including the new county and district councils, the PIEs and even National Bus Company subsidiaries.
Effectively it is this broad base of membership which the founders of the Confederation hope to establish in Order that the new body could "speak with one voice" for the whole industry. APPTO has already indicated its view that there is no need for a further body and this latest step is clearly aimed at reinforcing this point. It is also the first positive sign that APPTO members are determined to retain their voice, independent of the Confederation. During their meeting APPTO members also agreed — apparently without dissent — to change the Association's name. Under a proposal now before the registrar of companies the body will be renamed the Association of Public Passenger Transport (APPT). thus losing its "operator's" tag. Unofficial approval from the Department of Trade and Industry is understood to have been given for the changes.
According to one source, local authority members of APPT would elect a chosen representative to sit on the body's council. Enlarged membership of APPT — and apparently there are several would-be new members ready to join the present 69 APPTO members — would certainly seriously undermine the stated reasons for a single body.
Meanwhile there is still no sign of a draft constitution from the Confederation, though this was expected in July. It is believed that this is held up over the question of lay members — who will evidently form an important part of APPT. Until this document is published doubts about the future of the proposed body will multiply.