Transport to Enter Overall Planning Policy
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT THE . Government has decided that I transport planning shall take its place in an overall social pattern of development, and not be allowed to proceed entirely in its own interest.
This decision is one of several underlying the formation of a powerful Committee of nine senior Ministers who are examining the lopsided look of Britain's industry an4 population.
Mr. Marples is one of these Ministers— but only one. His transport plans, when presented next spring or early summer, will be scrutinized by the whole Committee, whose job is to look at transport and many other things, in the general context of the employment problem and the population drift to the south.
There are two aspects of the present transport set-up which threaten to enhance this drift. The first is the project for a Channel tunnel or bridge. I understand that the Cabinet is more than concerned at the prospect of such a project attracting more industry (and consequently more population) to the overcrowded south-east.
At present, it is therefore playing this one extremely carefully — and using domestic reluctance over a new crossing as a hit-back weapon against French toughness over our entry into the Common Market on reasonable terms.
Roads and Rochdale The second aspect concerns the important recommendations of the Rochdale Committee to develop the ports of Tilbury and Southampton. Again, there have been criticisms that this would encourage the drift southwards by emouraging industries to seek accommodation nearer these ports. The Rochdale Committee saw it rather differently: they stressed the pre-eminent need for adequate new road links, particularly between Southampton and the Midlands and the north.
But the question now being asked is: could the Government justify the expenditure on too many roads into an already prosperous area while ignoring the employment and social needs of Merseyside and elsewhere? While proMarketeers will rightly respond by asking whether we can trade efficiently with Europe with the present facilities at the places nearest the Continent, the overall point is not to be lost.
Mr. Marples now expects to get the Beeching proposals for the railways early in the New Year. Dr. Beeching's plan will be a purely commercial one, but again the Government will have to look' at the social implications, not only on rural transport, but upon the amount of new traffic created, and where.
There are signs that the doctrine of rigid "commercialism " will not in itself be enough. While two things remain of paramount importance—the railways should begin to pay their way (within five years if possible) and the consumer must retain the right to decide how to send his freight—this does not mean that national resources should be squandered just to create this viability, or this choice.
Molten Metal Can Go By Road THE Government will not stop molten metal being carried by road. There was existing power under the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations of 1955 which would make it an offence for any firm to carry dangerous substances in a dangerous manner, said Mr. C. M. Woodhouse, Joint Under Secretary of State at the Home Office, when he refused to impose the ban suggested in the Commons last week.
He added that the extremely limited number of companies who wished to convey such dangerous substances by road were prepared to consult the Chief Inspector of Explosives, and the Home Office had found that this kind of practical co-operation was the best way of making arrangements.
The topic had been raised by Mr. R. Graham Page (Tory, Crosby).
Tory Transport Posts A LONG association with the Conservative back-bench M.P.s' Transport Committee has been maintained with the re-election of Mr. Geoffrey Wilson (Truro) as chairman.
Mr. Wilson has now been chairman of the Committee for six years, with one year's break, and has been a member of the Committee for 10 years.
Covent Garden Site THE firm of professional consultants which is studying the issues involved in selecting the best site for the new Covent Garden Market is expected to report to the Market Authority, by about the end of the year. Lord St. Oswald, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to. the Ministry of Agriculture, said this in the Lords last week.