Give R.H.E. Another Year.
Page 35
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WHEN a party of Birmingham VT and Coventry transport managers was entertained by the. Midland division of the Road Haulage Executive, last week, they were told that given another year, the R.H.E. would have been able to have provided a service far better than any which had existed.
Mr. S. W. Mack, manager of the Birmingham and Coventry district, said that for the best part of 18 months the R.H.E. had been concerned with the amalgamation of acquired undertakings, and that it was not until last October that it was able to concentrate on providing the kind of service that was intended.
In its latest monthly bulletin, the British Road Federation makes a strong attack upon the proposal to impose a road haulage levy, which, it is stated, is tantamount to a railway subsidy. The crux of the transport problem was the inability of the railways to pay their way, and it was evading this issue to suggest that the solution was to replace the R.H.E. by the proceeds of a penalty upon road transport.
A meeting at Norwich, organized by the Transport and General Workers' Union, last week, expressed opposition to denationalization. Mr. 11, Paton, M.P. said that the loss in selling.R.H.E. assets would probably be £40m. Now that the Executive was making a profit, it was madness to sell it at a deficit.
At a meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne, members of the Union, stated to represent 5,000 employees of the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., Rnd associated firms, passed a resolution proteiting against denationalization. Similar meetings are being organized in other parts of the north-east.