Labour splits on transport
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LABOUR Party chiefs face a Party revolt over Transport Minister William Rodgers' White Paper, informed sources revealed this week.
Already, motions have been tabled for the annual conference, in October, by the rail unions and the Transport and General Workers Union alleging that the Paper fails to meet manifesto promises.
The likely rift is highlighted in a secret report produced by the transport sub-committee of the Party, in which the Government is accused of abandoning election pledges over the movement of traffic away from roads.
The report accuses the Government of abandoning its promises to develop public transport in order to make the country less dependent on the private car. Only lip service is paid to the Labour manifesto of 1974 which underlined Labour objectives of transferring as much traffic as possible to both the railways and the waterways, says the report.
Mr Rodgers is also accused of setting aside the longstanding commitment to an integrated transport policy by handing over responsibility for transport matters to local councils.
The unions are also maintaining that the passing out of new powers to the councils will give local authorities back door means to close down unprofitable rail routes and bus services.
The sub-committee report also slams the cuts in the road programme proposed in the paper, but it admits that the cuts are "by no means drastic."
And Leslie Huckfield, Labour MP for Nuneaton and former spokesman on transport, will open this year's CM Fleet Management Conference with the first debate — on the White Paper.
His address will centre largely on reactions to the Paper, and in particular, organisational stability in transport in Great Britain.