Clause 22
Local Transport Bill [ Lords ]
5:15 pm
Norman Baker (Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Transport; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
We are back on the accountability or otherwise of the approvals board, and I make no apology for raising the concept of accountability yet again. The Government propose to set up a very powerful triumvirate, which in my view will be able to thwart the views of elected local councillors and the ITA. Incidentally, that situation will be remedied in a helpful manner if new clause 5, which we shall discuss shortly, is accepted, but as the Bill is currently set out, what I have described will be possible. In those circumstances, we should consider the membership of the approvals board more closely.
I support the concept of experts being able to examine some of the proposals to see whether they are robust and make sense, and to give advice. There seems to be nothing whatever wrong with that; in fact, it seems a sensible idea. The idea is that there should be a traffic commissioner, an expert in transport economics and an expert in transport planning. That seems to be a sensible mix of people who should be asked to offer views. However, it is not a complete mix of the people who should be asked to offer views. Noticeably missing from that list is anyone who might actually travel on a bus. There is no guarantee that transport economists or transport planners will travel on buses, but someone from Passenger Focus or another passenger group, whom I am suggesting should be incorporated into the membership of the approvals board, certainly would travel on a bus.
I accept that it is a worst-case scenario, but let me explain the danger we face. An ITA of elected people carefully considers and consults and comes up with proposals, which then go before the approvals board, whose members may be unaware, even if they should not be, of the particular local circumstances. They may not have travelled on a bus for quite some time and they might be unsympathetic to what the local authority or the ITA is trying to do. In those circumstances, having someone on the approvals board who has experience of riding a bus would be quite a good idea. If the Minister says that is not quite the right idea and a better way of doing it is A, B and C, that is fine, but the concept of expanding the approvals board to have wider expertise is clearly right.