Go ahead for Confederation
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by Martin Hayes • Lay members will be allowed to join the Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport. This significant compromise is revealed in a statement issued this week by the eight original signatories and confirming their intention of proceeding with the new body. Initially it had been an evident, if unstated, aim to limit membership to professional transport men.
It has been clear that the question of lay members has seriously impeded progress towards forming the Confederation. In the words of one interested party this week, the body has been "teetering on the brink of total and utter collapse" during most of this summer. What has emerged is a compromise by which lay members can be admitted.
The Confederation statement says: "membership will be open to psv operators owning their own assets who will nominate their own representatives, any of whom will be eligible for election to the council of the Confederation", The spokesman who issued the statement interpreted this as including local authority fleet operators who could nominate a non-professional representative.
The statement goes on to say that a sub-committee has been formed to appoint a director-general. He will command a salary believed to be in the region of £10,000. It also indicates that a constitution will soon be forthcoming, It is clear that there has been considerable behind-the-scenes in-fighting over the lay membership issue. But, as one party put it to me this week, it would be impossible "to prejudice the whole body on this point". It was only one item in a whole package of ideas.
APPT opts out The lay members question has been exacerbated by the attitude oftheAssociation of Public Passenger Transport Operators. exclusively revealed in CM last week. APPTO — shortly to restyle itself APPT — wants no part in the Confederation and has broadened its own membership conditions in an apparent bid to undercut possible support for the new body.
This dissension clearly leaves many transport men in something of a dilemma. Though there is no technical reason why membership of both bodies is not possible this seems both unproductive and unlikely. The choice between APPTO and the Confederation may well follow the lines of those taken by the three PTE members of APPTO.
Dr Tony Ridley, director-general of the Tyneside PTE and both an APPTO council member and a Confederation signatory, refused to comment "until the final shape of the Confederation becomes clear".
Mr F. Moffat, director-general at Merseyside and another Confederation signatory, also declined to comment and we were unable to contact Mr Ronnie Cox of Glasgow and APPTO's vice-chairman.
It is clear that some, at least, of the signatories are hoping that many lay members will not in fact join the Con
federation. They feel that politicians' needs will be better provided for by the new Association of Metropolitan Authorities. This will be comprised of the Greater London Council, the London boroughs, the City of London and all the metropolitan counties and districts. This body would thus give elected representatives from the large local authorities a voice on policy matters, including transport.