Transport supremo power for councils?
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LOCAL authorities should be responsible for integrating transport systems and should have control of all forms of transport except the private car, says a report on the Green Paper on transport from the Association of Metropolitan Authorities.
The AMA accuses the Government of failing to provide an overall strategy and failing to deal with the allocation of transport resources. It has stressed the key role of the county councils in making local policies that fit their needs.
Government intentions to reduce the level of expenditure on roads and transport programmes are attacked and the switch of emphasis from local authority roads to the motorway and trunk roads programme is criticised by the AMA.
But the AMA has welcomed the idea of a National Transport Council but insists that it must be independent of the Government and must cover all transport services, not just road and rail.
"But the council will fail if it becomes a forum in which the Government merely hands down its intentions to the local authorities associations and other bodies," warns the AMA. It should be a body where joint objectives and strategies can be agreed and developed." AMA considers that councils should be given complete freedom when allocating resources between road and rail transport. "In some areas heavy rail subsidies will unreasonably harm bus and road services, but there are others where local rail transport will contribute more to the Government's social objectives than bus transport," Cuts in road expenditure also come in for criticism because, it says, the cuts will lead to increased expenditure in the future because of deterioration in the roads and this will also increase the wear and tear on public service vehicles.