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THIS 'CLOAK AND DAGGER APPROACH TO POLICY'

7th July 1967, Page 48
7th July 1967
Page 48
Page 48, 7th July 1967 — THIS 'CLOAK AND DAGGER APPROACH TO POLICY'
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A"REMARKABLE cloak and dagger approach to undeclared policy and legislation" was how Southdown Motor Services chairman Mr. R. P. Beddow last week described Mrs. Castle's "private and confidential" meetings on Passenger Transport Authorities with local authorities and bus operators in the Midlands and North And, speaking at the company's annual general meeting, he added:—

"At last the cloak is cast aside to reveal naked nationalization, reminiscent of the provisions of the Transport Act 1947, while the dagger becomes a sword of Damocles poised over the whole of the passenger transport industry."

Mr. Beddow's view of what operators really required:—

Relief from the penal taxation which assailed them on all sides; better road conditions under which to operate services efficiently; and freedom for the experts to get on with the job, without interference from a new superstructure of governmental control.

Mr. Beddow reported that during the year far greater use had been achieved of the available one-man-operated rolling stock —with mileage up from 3,750,000 to 6,425,000 (29 per cent of the company's total bus mileage). Discussing training, Mr. F. K. Pointon, chairman, Aldershot and District Traction Co. Ltd., said at his company's annual general meeting: "It is inevitable that the flat levy of 1.6 per cent on payroll will give rise to many anomalies."

He found it difficult to understand why there was no prior examination of the special training requirements of the industry and of what was already being done.

Mr. Pointon said that the levy would cost the company £17,000 a year and it was not known what would be refunded in training grants. The one certain thing was that, as in the case of SET and fuel oil surcharge, a substantial sum of money was to be paid over to the detriment of the company's cash resources.

Work would start soon on new central workshops at Aldershot, reported Mr. Pointon, together with the modernization of the body shop and maintenance department.


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