HC Deb 17 April 1962 vol 658 cc306-7
Mr. Hay

I beg to move, in page 9, line 10, at the end to insert: For the purposes of this subsection any power to carry passengers in accordance with a working agreement which was made in pursuance of section eighteen of the London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, and to which the Commission became a party by virtue of Part II of the Transport Act, 1947, shall be left out of account. Subsection 5 of this Clause gives the Minister a duty to certify in a Statutory Instrument the routes on which London Transport had power to carry passengers on 2nd November, 1961. During the discussion in Standing Committee my hon. Friend the Member for Truro (Mr. G. Wilson) proposed an Amendment intended to remove from the list of scheduled routes such routes as were operated by virtue of a terminable agreement or arrangement. His point was that the Bill should not make permanent voluntary agreements between London Transport and another operator which contained a provision for termination or variation.

I explained that it was not the intention that the Minister's certificate should include such routes, but I undertook to look again at the whole matter to ensure that the drafting correctly carried out our intentions. The object of the Amendment is to make this intention clear and to put the matter beyond all doubt. Its practical effect will be to exclude from the list of routes three services which London Transport operates by virtue of a working agreement made shortly after 1933. The routes are, first, between Wendover and Aylesbury, about 5 miles long; the second is I mile long in Dunstable from The Square to the Sphinx Works; and the third, is part of Service 326 from Micklefield Estate to Sands, near High Wycombe and this is 1½ miles long.

I hope that this is not too big a sledgehammer to crack three very small nuts, but I think it wise to put the matter beyond all doubt.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendments made: In page 9, line 24, leave out from "store" to end of line 27.

In page 9, line 30, at end insert: and, so far as any premises provided for the purposes of that or any other part of their business are not required for those purposes, to use them to provide facilities for the storage of other goods". In page 10, leave out lines 32 to 39 and insert: (f) to store goods which have been or are to be carried on any of the inland waterways owned or managed by the Authority, or which have been or are to be loaded or unloaded in or carried through any of the harbours owned or managed by them, and, so far as any premises provided for the purposes of that or any other part of their business are not required for those purposes, to use them to provide facilities for the storage of other goods.—[Mr. Hay.]