Transport Users Consultative Committee for Wales (Hansard, 28 March 1973)

HC Deb 28 March 1973 vol 853 cc1286-8 1286

§ 10. Mr. Roderick
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the names of the Transport Users Consultative Committee for Wales and list the changes in membership which have taken place in the past two years.

§ Mr. Peyton
The committee was reconstituted on 1st March 1972, since when there have been no changes of membership. I will, with permission, circulate the list of members in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

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§ Mr. Roderick
Is the Minister aware of the grave anxieties which exist that he is anti-railway in his attitude? We know that two previous members of that committee who were keen supporters of the railways have been dropped. Is that attitude reflected in the Minister's Department?

§ Mr. Peyton
If I have a reputation for being in any way anti-railway it is solely due to the hon. Gentleman and people like him who ask questions like that.

§ Mr. Leslie Huckfield
Will not the Minister do his best to appoint to transport users consultative committees people who know something about the travelling problems of the public? Will not he accept that very little is known about the members of TUCCs and even less about their activities? Will he now do his utmost to tell railway travellers that they can complain, and that they have these channels of complaint?

§ Mr. Peyton
I think that these channels of complaint are well known to the House and to the public.

§ Mr. Huckfield
No.

§ Mr. Peyton
It is quite uncalled for to say that the people who serve on these committees have neither interest nor knowledge in the subject. They perform a very useful task, and I am grateful to them.
This committee was set up in a manner exactly similar to that followed by the previous administration, and I am not saying that it is necessarily wrong.

§ Mr. Ron Lewis
Will the Minister withdraw the remark that he made to my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Roderick), bearing in mind that we hope that he is not anti-railway? Those of us who have been engaged in the railways will look forward to his cooperation in the future.

§ Mr. Peyton
I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has in mind many instances of authors wishing to withdraw remarks that they have made, but the remark that I have just made to his hon. Friend is not one of them.

§ Following is the information:

Mr. C. L. Ricketts (Chairman).
*Mr. W. O. D. Eadie, FCMA, ACIS, MBCS
Councillor Mrs. G. Evans.
*Mrs. M. E. Evans.
Councillor E. H. Gough.
*Mr. J. M. Griffiths, ACIS.
Mrs. M. R. Griffiths. JP.
Mr. L. Howell, OBE, FCIS
Mr. A. Hughes, ACIS.
Mrs. D. Hughes.
*Mr. J G. James, Dip PESS.
*Mr. J. A. Jones, MBE, FIAC
Councillor E. Joyce.
*Mr. R. Marler, BA.
Mrs. E. Richards, SRN, SCM.
*Alderman J. C. Roberts.
Mr. O. G. Saunders.
Alderman Captain R. P. Turner, JP.
*Mr. J. R. Ryler.
Mr. G. A. Whitefoot.
Mr. J. I. Williams.

§ The asterisk indicates members appointed for the first time when the Committee was reconstituted in March 1972.