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Concessionary Fares Bill First Reading
Page 49
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TRANSPORT legislation appears to have been given a back seat among the priorities in the Labour Party's first programme for 13 years. The industry —for which Labour is known to have controversial plans—rated only a sevenword mention in the Queen's speech which was presented on Tuesday.
But the speech also declared that "other measures" apart from those outlined would be laid before the Commons, and the bet is that if the programme needs reshaping after Christmas, some transport proposals will be -considered, at least.
One measure which did get off to a good start was the Concessionary Fares Bill, published on Wednesday. It honoured a .Labour promise to clear up the anomalies caused by the freezing of concessions in 1955.
It can be taken for granted that Mr. Wilson and his Ministers will whistle through this measure to give local authorities, much greater powers to decide the scope and range of the concessions which will suit them best.
The new measure, to be known as the Travel Concessions Bill, will remove the restriction in the 1955 Act which limited local authorities to the concessions they were giving before the end of November, 1954.
Persons to whom concessions will be applicable will be: men over 65 and women over 60; persons under 15; persons between 15 and 18 undergoing lull-time education; blind persons; certain disabled persons; and members of local authorities. There is provision in the Bill for amendments to these categories when the school-leaving age is raised from 15 to 16, so that schoolchildren will remain covered.
The Government intends that the cost of the measure to local authorities will rank for rate deficiency grant and the Exchequer equalization grant, The amount of money involved in the increases cannot . be estimated at the moment, but is not expected to be substan t