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LONDON MAY HAVE FIRST CONURBATION AUTHORITY

16th December 1966
Page 34
Page 34, 16th December 1966 — LONDON MAY HAVE FIRST CONURBATION AUTHORITY
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By Derek Moses IN this confused age of talk of integration, co-ordination and conurbation, London may yet lead the way with the establishment of the first Conurbafion Transport Authority, following a resolution passed by a full meeting of the Greater London Council on Tuesday.

The motion, moved by the chairman have to know where it stood financially.

of the general purposes committee, recommended that, subject to satisfactory administrative and financial arrangements, "the council be prepared to play a leading role in the establishment of a conurbation transport authority for London, in the realization that this would fully involve the council in the finance and policies of the London Transport Board".

An amendment by the Conservative opposition group to delete all words after "London" and substitute the wording ". with a view to securing a unified direction of policy and executive action over the various bodies concerned with transport facilities in London" was defeated by 61 votes to 33, and the original motion was carried by 59 votes to 33.

Introducing the motion, the chairman, Mr. Victor Mishcan, stated that the threefold aims of the council towards public transport in London should be modernization, integration and socialization. The proposals were inspired by Mrs. Castle's White Paper (and follow the recent statement by the leader of the council, Sir William Fiske, reported in COMMERCIAL MOTOR, November 18).

Reorganization of the structure of public transport must take place to remove the basic defects and the right solution was a single authority. London might be called upon to play the pilot role, he said. But if the council approved this bold but preliminary step, it would

Mr. Desmond Plummer, leader of the opposition, said that he had called for a similar step in an earlier motion (a reference to his call for a transport overlord for London). He did not think, however, that the London area required the same treatment as other parts of the country, as the transport services were not split up among a large number of different operators.

Most of LTB's trouble stemmed from the attitude of the trade unions and their restrictive practices. The council must consider very carefully before meddling with day-to-day operation.

Cllr. Mrs. Phillips, chairman of the highways and traffic committee, stressed that so far no financial commitments had been entered into.

It was the council's duty to adopt a completely new attitude and it was no good having an overlord. "We must feel that our buses are run by our own authority", she said.

Sir William Fiske stated that London had a proliferation of authorities. There were 33 boroughs, the Metropolitan Police, British Railways, London Transport and so on. However, in reply to questions from Conservative members, he stressed that the day-to-day working of the transport services must be kept away from the authority of council members.

Talks plan for TGWU Scottish bus merger

THE TGWU plan For merging Scotland's bus services under one regional authority may be taken a step further early in the New Year, when it is hoped to have discussions with Mrs. Barbara Castle.

So far the proposals have been raised only informally with the Government.


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