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State to spend £350,000 on vehicle testing equipment
Page 64
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT rr HE Government has set aside £350,000 in the coming financial year for equipment for -Ithe testing of heavy goods vehicles. Estimates from the Ministry of Transport, presented to Parliament on Monday, also contained a sum of 13,000 for equipment for testing and licensing h.g.v. drivers.
The railways grant for 1967-8 was optimistically fixed at £127,000,000—£9 million less than the out-turn for the current year. Actual working losses on the railways are expected to total £67 million, and the interest charge burden will be £66,500,000. Ships, harbours, hotels, etc., are expected to take up the difference by earning profits.
Among major road spending during the coming year will be £14m. on the LondonYorkshire motorway between Aston and Leeds: £6.400,000 on the M.5 Midland link south of Quinton to Great Barr; and just over £7m. on both ends of the Lancashire-Yorkshire motorway. Transport Minister Mrs. Barbara Castle is expected to subsidize London Transport by nearly £10m. in the coming financial year.
The Government grant to the Board for 1967-8 is estimated at £9,700,000—more than double the amount of support being given in the current financial year.
This aid pursues the aim of assisting the undertaking to cope with what Mrs. Castle has called the "vicious spiral of decline" into which its buses in particular have fallen.
Last year, Parliament passed a Bill enabling the Government to cover the Board's expected deficits up to the end of next year. In addition, Mrs. Castle has obtained the postponement of fares increases by both the London Transport Board and British Railways in return for a promise of the necessary financial support.
The estimates showed that London Transport was expected to lose some £7,500,000 on bus and coach operations in 1967. Al] other activities would make a profit, but there would be another £7,400,000 to find for interest charges. Taken together, the Board's total deficit would be in the region of £10m.
Payments to bus operators to offset the fuel tax increases under Labour are also expected to be substantially up in the coming financial year. Provision has been made to pay out £7,200,000 to them, compared with £5,600,000 during the current year.