MP presses for independent transport committee
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• Parliament should stop making transport a political shuttlecock, according to Mr. Peter Bessell, Liberal MP for Bodmin. Speaking at the Transport Managers' Club in London last week, Mr. Bessell said that something so vital to a country's economy as its transport system should not be in the hands of politicians. He suggested that there should be a permanent committee on transport comprised of experts. The committee would have three members of Government, two members of Opposition and equal representation from the Road Haulage Association, the Freight Transport Association and trade and industry.
"Our economy is dependent on exports," he continued, suggesting that the committee would look at the road systems to the docks and turn-round at docks and that it would be looking beyond September 1970, as was the case at the moment. "We should have been planning for 1980 as far back as 1945", he said.
As the second line in this country's economy, transport should not be the whipping boy for the Treasury. It was over-taxed and at the same time deprived of the necessary money for development, said Mr. Bessell, who maintained that the Freightliner service was beginning to fail, because of terminal delays. The service had been too successful for the rolling stock and facilities available, and very much the same could be said of dock and container facilities. Even these essential parts of transport had been under-capitalized, in Mr. Bessell's opinion.
The speaker said that the tragedy of Government control of transport was that it
was inclined only to look so far as the end of each Parliamentary life. "We need to look beyond five years—in fact 50 years ahead" he said.
Mr. Bessell urged all concerned with tansport to press for the establishment of the permanent committee concept. He said that this would provide the industry with a watchdog and lead to realistic planning. With political independence, the committee would be able to travel all over the world and bring back to this country for implementation the best techniques available. It was his contention that the Government should be subject to both the will of the Commons and the proposed committee, and that the whips would not be called out in transport matters.