Still No Consultative Committees
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WHY has the Minister of Transport not yet set up the Transport Consultative Committees laid down in the Transport Act? They are to have representatives of users, including agriculture, commerce, industry, shipping, labour and local authorities, and ire to make recommendations about such important matters as British Transport Commission services and facilities, when asked to do so by users of these services and facilities, by the Commission or by the Minister.
On the passenger side the absence of these cornmittees is not so marked, because a special procedure is laid down for consultation on an area basis; moves have, indeed, already been made to initiate it in the North-Eastern Area.
On the goods side, on the other hand, the nonexistence of these committees is perhaps the most important facet of Sir Cyril Hurcomb's recent "progress report" to the industry. The Commission, we learn, is toying with the discontinuance of long-distance road haulage; it has paid attention to a revised rates classification and has made good progress in establishing more or less common conditions of carriage between rpad and rail. These are vital matters on which trade and industry will have the strongest possible views and may wish to make. representations.
Surely, time would be saved if the machinery intended by Parliament to protect the interests of transport users were now to be set up and the views of their representatives on these important matters obtained. Or is it again deliberately intended to present industry with a fait accompli?
The fact that the Minister has just announced the names of the chairmen of the Central Committee and the Committees for Scotland and Wales does not alter the position. He still expects shortly to be able to publish the names of the• members, although he has been expressing this hope for months.