PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
AN IMPORTANT CONFERENCE ON BUS LICENSING.
West Riding County Council to Co-operate with Other Municipal Authorities in Discussing Transport Problems.
THE West Riding County Council is to call a conference of all the• authorities in the area to discuss matters relating to bus licensing, the invitations to be addressed to the county and non-county boroughs in addition to the smaller authorities. This will include the large cities such as Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield in an area which includes a population greater than that of London.
The decision reached at a conference called by the Law and -Parliamentary Committee of the West Riding County Council at the suggestion of the Hemsworth Rural Council in consequence of difficulties which have arisen in the area of that authority and of neighbouring authorities.
Bus services have increased considerably in the colliery area around Wakefield ; but, on account of the large number of authorities, there has been a lack of co-ordination in the methods adopted, and the confusion and congestion have been a matter which has been giving several authorities some trouble. At the conference the Borough of Pontefract, the urban councils of Hemsworth and Featherstone, and the Hemsworth, Wakefield, Barnsley, Pontefract and Doncaster rural district councils were called to consider the position locally. Aid. D. Hardaker, chairman of the Law and Parliamentary Committee of the county council, presided.
The Hemsworth Rural Council representative said the greatest evil in that area was at South Elmsall, where there was often a dozen buses standing in the street at one time. Some ran independently of the ordinary regular services, others " cut in," and there was no inspection, as at some pieces. The congestion was so acute that it was often a menace to the safety of the public. Traffic had got completely out of hand. No system of licensing would be satisfactory unless it rested upon a broader basis than that of the local authority. The line of least resistance had been taken in licensing, but that system would not function much longer. In reply to a question whether the idea was that there should be one licensing authority for the whole of the West Riding, a Hemsworth representative said the problem could not be solved unless there was co-operation with the county boroughs.
The West Riding solicitor (Mr. J. C. McGrath) said a joint committee was appointed some time ago to act for the Pontefract and Castleford district to formulate genera/ lines of policywith regard to the safety of the public in all its aspects ; the reliability and regularity of the services; the adequacy of the services and the prevention of wasteful services ; the impartial and equitable treatment of conflicting interests; and the mitigation and relief
of congestion in the streets. Full information on these points had not yet come to hand.
The changes proposed under the new Road Traffic Bill were referred to by Mr. McGrath, and on more than one occasion it had been suggested that for the administrative county there should be one licensing and regulating authority and that this should be the County council. That suggestion would probably meet with a mixed reception, he said. Transport which ran through a number of areas called for the issue of as many different liceeces. As the main roads formed the principal bus routes, and these had to be maintained out of county moneys, the most efficient and proper body to regulate the traffic was obviously the police, who were also under the control of the county council, under the standing joint committee. The transport undertakers had also to go to the county hall for other licences, and there seemed to be no reason why there should not be one licensing office and a single application made for all the licences needed.
On the suggestion of Sir Percy Jackson it was resolved that a further conference should be held to embrace the whole of the geographical area of the West Riding, that a memorandum should be drafted, and that with it a communication should be sent to all the local authorities, including the county and non-county boroughs, asking if they would be willing to come to another confence to consider the situation.