All-transport Ministry?
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• Mr J. R. Stainton, in his presidential address to the Institute of Transport on Monday, urged the case for a Ministry dealing with all aspects of transport. The Ministry of Transport, said Mr Stainton, was responsible for roads. railways and ports; the Board of Trade controlled airports, aviation and shipping; while the Ministry of Technology looked after hovercraft and some transport development. "Any attempt to knit together our transport infrastructure must surely be accompanied by the creation of a unified Ministry at least to look after all domestic aspects of transport as well as the fitting in of international air and sea services." Another major policy proposal canvassed by Mr Stainton, who is deputy managing director, British Overseas Airways Corporation, called for the setting up of a Standing Commission—possibly resembling the Prices and Incomes Board or a small-scale European Economic Commission—designed to harmonize sectional and regional transport interests within the national environment. Such a body, perhaps called the national transport planning commission, must assume full responsibility and accountability over the use and protection of our shrinking real resources, and take into account fair considerations of broad public amenity.