LOCAL TRANSPORT BILL AND DETERMINATION OF QUALITY CONTRACTS

That this House welcomes the Local Transport Bill which will give passenger transport executives and other local transport authorities a broader range of powers with which to tackle the cuts in services, decline in patronage and inflation-plus fares rises which have been the hallmark of 20 years of bus deregulation; but calls for the Bill to be strengthened to ensure that the franchising of bus networks through quality contracts is determined by the local democratically-elected authority rather than being subject to two tiers of quango adjudication which could result in a veto by quangos of democratically-elected politicians' plans to improve what is a key public service relied upon by the most vulnerable and socially excluded sections of society.