No to council control
Page 7
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The favour with which the Government apparently looks on bus operation in its consultative document would be more than welcome were it not for two factors in the Green Paper. The proposals that licensing should become a local government function and that the NBC and Passenger Transport Executives should be unified with municipal undertakings must give cause for concern. This can only lead eventually to public ownership and control on the largest possible scale and would surely result in the demise of the private sector and worse. It would in time create a situation where the "open ended subsidies" which Peter Shore has set his face against would be essential to keep the bus wheels turning. Surely we have learned the lesson of public monopolies by now.
Already the industry both within NBC and Confed is voicing disquiet over the proposed restructuring of bus management. There is also concern that the Traffic Commissioners may be superseded by local government officers. Surely what is required are Traffic Commissioners without political affiliations, indeed Licensing Authorities, and a licensing system for buses with a similar criteria as that applied to goods vehicle operators' licensing.
Whatever happens, the licensing and operation of road passenger transport must not pass completely into the hands of local government. Such a monopoly would result in a second British Rail and Britain today can't afford two such luxuries.