ROAD SPENDING ATTACKED THIS country was in a period of
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increasing competition, yet if road communications were bad costs were higher. The fact was that, though• the • rnads programme was much better, it was
quite inadequate. This was said in London on Tuesday by Lord Derwent, chairman of the British Road Federation, at the annual lunch of the National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses.
A total of £737 m. was collected in taxes from road users—five times as much as the total spending by the Government on all forms Of road work.
The Conference president, Mr. W. R. Rees-Davies, M.P., called for an early statement on Government thinking on the Construction and Use Regulations and their integration with Common Market requirements.
At the annual general meeting before the lunch, Mr. Rees-Davies was re-elected president. Mr. I. F. Archbold, Mr, H. Firth, Mr. J. W. Ellis and Mr. S. Eastmead .were re-elected vice-presidents.
NO OFFER FOR MUNICIPAL OR COMPANY BUSMEN
MUNICIPAL bus employers proved to be unexpectedly tough and uncompromising when they met the .unions last week on their claim for higher pay and better conditions.
In spite of the London Transport Executive's " pace-setting " offers of from 5s. to 7s. a week to their own employees, the municipal undertakings refused to make any offer at all. In the end the National Joint Industrial Council for the Road Passenger Transport Industry decided to adjourn the talks until April' 5.
At a meeting of the National Council for the Omnibus Industry in London on Tuesday, the employers' representatives replied to the case presented by the trades unions in support Of their claims for a substantial increase in wages and improvements in working conditions. The claims were referred to a special committee, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the N.C.O.I.