Local Transport Bill [HL]

This amendment focuses on membership of an integrated transport authority. I understand the sensitivities around these issues. We have had this debate in local government many times as to whether it is right and appropriate to have independent, non-elected members, who should appoint them, what their powers, terms and conditions should be, and so on. At different times, I guess that the local authority lobby has taken a different view on what is or is not right. So it is not an easy matter to get right. There probably has to be a structure that works in the circumstances. We have discussed some of this earlier. We believe in general terms that existing legislation covering PTAs is too restrictive in that, by setting out much of the detail of how such authorities are constructed and work in primary legislation, it does not allow for different arrangements to be set up in different areas or for these arrangements to develop over time. It is important to retain the flexibility for the membership arrangements for each ITA to be able to be determined in secondary legislation, which would of course be subject to the affirmative resolution in your Lordships’ House and another place. The arrangements for a particular ITA’s membership which are set out in an order would flow from the governance scheme put forward by authorities in that area under Clause 70, which would be subject to widespread consultation. This is not a case of a particular membership being imposed on ITAs by central government. That is not what we are seeking to achieve. We would, of course, agree that it is important to ensure that an ITA is democratically accountable to the people of its area, which is why Clause 72(3) requires that a majority of an ITA’s members would have to be elected councillors of the authorities whose territory falls within the ITA area. Furthermore, the Bill leaves it open to authorities carrying out a review to propose that the ITA’s membership should continue to be made up of only local councillors, if they felt that to be more appropriate. If they just wanted councillors, that would be fine and the end of the story. Alternatively, they would be able to propose that persons from other sectors should be members of the ITA; for instance, representatives of the business sector, transport users, Network Rail, environmental groups and others who might bring relevant wider experience, knowledge and understanding.