Stockport welcomes end of PTAs
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• Confirmation by Mr Eldon Griffiths, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, that the four Passenger Transport Authorities will cease to exist when the new metropolitan councils come into operation has been welcomed in Stockport, Cheshire.
Stockport's representative on SELNEC PTA, Cllr Richard Heap, has stated that this clearly indicates that public transport "once again will be under the control of a democratically minded body". Councillors have claimed that since SELNEC took over the profitable Stockport undertaking, along with those of another 10 municipalities, it has slid deeply into debt.
Opponents of the controversial legislation which led to the creation of the PTA have welcomed the news that the Authority is to be disbanded and buses that were taken from the Stockport and neighbouring municipal fleets are to be handed over to the proposed metropolitan county council. Cllr Heap, however, has warned his fellow members not to be too jubilant, for although welcoming the change he felt "it would really not make much difference because, technically, even under the new White Paper plan, the town would not be able to reclaim its fleet of buses" ,
The transport committee of the new metropolitan area county council will be very large consisting of at least 30 members and, says Cllr Heap, would still have to depend much on the advice of professional officers, now members of SELNEC's Executive. Cllr Heap was the member who suggested at a meeting last October that Stockport should ask the Government to dissolve the Authority and the Executive.
Ald J. Holland, chairman of the Stockport transport committee, in a statement welcoming the new move said: "It will give the elected representatives a greater say and more control. At present the PTE are holding complete authority with very little say, if any, for the elected members. The change could only be for the good."