Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 69: 69: After Clause 57, insert the following new Clause— ““Extension of grant-making powers (1) Section 106 of the TA 1985 (grants for transport facilities and services) is amended as follows. (2) In subsection (1)(a) omit the words ““who are disabled””. (3) In subsection (2) (a) in paragraph (a) omit the words from ““transport”” to ““; or””; (b) in paragraph (b) omit the words ““, other than excepted services””; (c) omit the words from ““In this subsection”” to the end of the subsection.”” The noble Lord said: The amendment seeks to allow a PTA or a PTE and various other councils increased powers to make grants for transport facilities and services. I understand that currently the powers to make such grants are restricted in general to providing, maintaining or improving facilities wholly or mainly for facilitating travel by members of the public who are disabled or elderly. Section 106 of the Transport Act 1985 is the only grant-making power that is available to PTEs and is restricted in its application. Widening the grant-making powers would give PTEs much greater flexibility in delivering public passenger transport services and would allow such a body to support financially initiatives that were provided by both the commercial and the voluntary sectors. It would allow a PTE to provide grants to community transport vehicles, to commercial operators in connection with contracted services and to landowners, for example, to provide public transport facilities. The basic purpose of the amendment is to seek to widen the grant-making powers as far as the authorities are concerned and to enable them to give over a rather wider area and give them a bit more flexibility in such powers in relation to delivering passenger transport services. I beg to move.