'Anachronistic' Commissioners' role says report
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IT IS an anachronism for the Traffic Commissioners to have overlapping responsibilities now that local authorities are so heavily involved with the provision and finance of bus services.
form: Changing the Rules (16.50; PSI, 100 Park Village East, London NW1 35R) published earlier this month.
"Their role should be confined, as with express services, to determining which operators are fit to hold a public service operator's licence," says author Stephen Plowden.
"To decide what services should be provided, what fares should be charged and what operators to employ, should be a matter for county councils, subject perhaps, as in the exercise of their other duties, to some reserve powers for ministers in central Government but not to any other intervention."
The report stresses that if cars were properly regulated and the roads managed in such a way that allowed buses to operate freely, the amount of subsidy could be substantially reduced — in towns it might be ultimately eliminated.