Tax is 'Solution— Not Committee " A COMMITTEE is not needed
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to tell us the obvious ways to get ow' • expenses down—let the Government remove our crippling burden of taxa.tion," said Mr. J. S. Wills, chairman of B.E.T.. Omnibus Services, Ltd., when speaking ' about the dwindling receipts from rural bus services at the company's annual meeting last week.
Mr. Wills observed that 87+ per cent. of the oil fuel used in this country was tax free. If the tax were shared equally by all users, the rate per gallon would be cut from 2s. 6d to less than 31d.
'Despite the recent concession in licence duty, it still amounted to £36 a year for a 68-seater and even more on a larger vehicle. Surely it was difficult to justify any licence duty for a public service vehicle, he said, especially when compared with the flat rate charged for a private car.
The resilience of the British bus industry after the difficulties . of 1957, despite continuing penal taxation and a further increase in wages, had proved to be heartening, he said, and there was every prospect that the companies would at least hold their ground.
B.E.T. companies were still carrying many more passengers than in the days immediately preceding the last war, which was remarkable evidence that the need for public transport continued.
Speaking of the future, Mr. Wills said that if inflation could be kept at bay and theco-operation of employees retained, the B.E.T. associated companies should find little difficulty in maintaining a satisfactory flow of traffic.
BATTERY RESEARCH-PLEA , .A SUGGESTION that the Electricity rn. Council should spend £10m. over the next five years on research on the storage battery was made by Mr. Phillip Noel-Baker at the British Electrical Power Convention at Torquay.
" I believe that you , ought to tackle the problem of city "transport. Electric vehicles are not yet as efficient as they ought to be," he said. ."-Your research work at present covers many things.,but I find it Strange and disconcerting, that there is never any Mention of research into the storage battery."
' EXETER' AIRPORT SERVICES GRANTED
A' application by the Devon, General Omnibus and Touring Co., Ltd., for an express service between •Exeter airport-and Paighton, 'calling at intervening South Devon resorts, was granted by the Western Traffic Commissioners at Bristol last week.
Mr. Gordon McMurtrie, tor the applicants, said that their application followed that of Wallace Arnold Tours (Devon),• Ltd., who had withdrawn their objection. The proposed service was intended to handle an increasing flow of airline tourist traffic from the north-west, London, Birmingham and South Wales.
Mr. S. W. Nelson, chairman, said an ad hoc service was necessary.