Local Transport Bill [HL]

My Lords, before my noble friend sits down, perhaps I may take the matter a little further. While agreeing wholeheartedly with what my noble friend Lord Smith has just said, that objections should not be last-minute ones, there is always the problem that the passenger transport authorities are not themselves responsible for the highway works on which many of these voluntary agreements depend. Again on Birmingham, and without making political points about it, let us imagine a situation where, although both sides have ironed out the objections as outlined desirable by my noble friend, one of the highway authorities says, ““We are not prepared to implement that agreement and we have the final say””—exactly what takes place in Birmingham. That would be—I hope my noble friend would agree—where a last-minute objection would be very relevant. Can the Minister offer us any comfort about this disagreement, which one can envisage taking place in other parts of the country, given changes of political control over the years, and say whether something can be done to ensure that agreements between passenger transport authorities and bus operators are not negated by the action of highways authorities on a change of political control?