8 August 2007

TRANSPORT COMMITTEE RESPONDS TO CSS EVIDENCE

The House of Commons Transport Committee’s newly-published response to the Government’s draft Local Transport Bill includes several references to evidence given by CSS. 

CSS evidence was given by Colin McKenna, chairman of the CSS Integrated Transport Group. He said he was pleased to see that the committee and the DfT had addressed most CSS concerns. The Government has indicated its intention to lay a Local Transport Bill before the next session of Parliament, and so the input into the legislation should be reflected in the revised Bill.

Colin McKenna was pleased with the committee’s support for improving the bus voluntary and statutory partnership and the statutory contract arrangements. He was also pleased that it supported more flexibility for transport authorities such as county councils to form Passenger Transport Authorities (PTAs) covering only part rather than the whole of their areas.

He was pleased also to see the DfT response that encouraged early dialogue between transport operators and transport authorities to avoid the possibility of Traffic Commissioners using their reserve powers proposed in the Bill.  “It is in everyone’s interests to accentuate the positive and that protocols are devised to get local transport authorities and bus operators to work together to tackle reliability and punctuality issues,” he said.  “CSS is participating in a DfT working group to ensure that good practice in this area is identified. Transport authorities cannot afford to be hauled before the Traffic Commissioners for an unproductive argument on data and what should have been done to reduce congestion.”

Colin McKenna was, however, disappointed that the committee did not take the opportunity to respond to some positive proposals put forward by ATCO and CSS to improve regulations for bus transport in rural areas.

“Given the amount of local authority and government subsidy applied to keeping services going in rural areas CSS members feel that the current regulations sometimes prevent the best use of public money in meeting local authority objectives,” he said. “Also, having free fares to those of retirement age and people with disabilities is not much use to those in rural areas with poor access to conventional bus services. Our proposals would have addressed these issues.”

He welcomed the conclusions from the committee on the application of the Transport Innovation Fund. The committee wanted the fund to become more widely available to Local Transport Authorities by taking out the requirement that funding must require some form of road user charging and allowing a wider range of demand management measures to qualify.

ends

Media contact  

Barrie Hedges, Daybreak Communications office 0845 644 3845; mobile 07899 923756; barrie.hedges@daybreakcomm.co.uk

Notes to editors

• CSS represents local authority chief officers who manage some of the most pressing issues facing the UK today. Membership is drawn from all four corners of the United Kingdom with members responsible for three-quarters of the road network, two thirds of the land area and just under half of the population of England and Wales. Operating at the strategic tier of local government, they are closely involved in crucial transport, waste management, environment, planning, energy and economic development issues.

• The House of Commons Transport Select Committee considered evidence from various bodies including the CSS before producing its report on the government’s draft Transport Bill which was published on the 3 August.

• The draft Bill contains several clauses relating to partnerships between Local Transport Authorities and bus operators to improve reliability, frequency, facilities for bus passengers, information and fares. Current legislation constrains what is possible.

• The draft Bill proposes that passenger transport authorities can be formed in shire county areas but requires the whole of a county area to be included in such an arrangement.

• A clause in the draft Bill would give powers to the Traffic Commissioner for an area to call for data and explanations from the Local Transport Authority on why they were not doing more to reduce the causes of bus unreliability and punctuality on the roads for which they were responsible. If not satisfied the Traffic Commissioner could recommend that the Secretary of State for Transport take action against the authority in accordance with his powers under the Traffic Management Act. This could lead to a government appointed Traffic Manager being imposed on an authority.

• The Select Committee also took evidence on the application of the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund.
• Details of the report are available on the House of Commons Web Site www.parliament.uk/transcom