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Autumn deadline for transport White Paper

25th July 1975, Page 6
25th July 1975
Page 6
Page 6, 25th July 1975 — Autumn deadline for transport White Paper
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THE White Paper now being prepared on the Government's future transport policy will be ready for publication in the autumn, the Environment Secretary, Mr Tony Crosland, said last week.

This followed a meeting with the Transport Group of Labour MPs who have been pressing for a comprehensive plan to reorganise transport administration. And while the MPs feel that the White Paper will fall short of this they are now confident that the document will be a step in the right direction. Mr Crosland gave them an assurance that many of the proposals set out by a study group and published in the Socialist Commentary in April will be adopted as official policy.

The study group, chaired by Mr Les Huckfield, MP for Nuneaton, recommended that: • Passenger transport coordination should be the responsibility of local government with a central authority playing a "long stop" role; • Public ownership in road haulage should be extended; • The National Bus Company should be preserved but the new authority should pronounce its level of competition with other services; • And that the trade unions should increase their participation.

At this stage Mr Crosland said that he was not prepared to give an indication of which of these proposals he will include in the White Paper. But the two "hot potatoes," nationalisation and the setting up of a new authority which would probably mean the break up of the Ministry of Transport, are likely candidates for exclusion.

Decisions on this aspect of transport policy will be taken only when the Cabinet comes to assess the priorities for legislation in the next Parliamentary Session. With a heavy programme already on the stocks, including the State takeover of shipbuilding and aviation, it is felt that further nationalisation in the road haulage sector, with the financial commitment that would involve, will again be postponed.

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Organisations: Ministry of Transport

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