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Lords amendment: No. 133, after clause 61 insert—
.— (1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, any non-metropolitan county or district council in England and Wales and London Regional Transport shall each have power to enter into any agreement or arrangements with the other undert which that council or (as the case may be) London Regional Transport underake to contribute towards any expenditure incurred by the other party to the agreement or arrangements in making payments to a person providing a public passenger transport service under any agreement entered into by that other party in exercise of any power that other party may have to secure the provision of that service.
(2) The agreement under which the payments are made must have been entered into in pursuance of the agreement or arrangements between the council in question and London Regional Transport.
(3) The power of London Regional Transport under section 3(2) of the London Regional Transport Act 1984 (contracting-out powers) to enter into and carry out agreements with any person for the provision by that person of any public passenger transport service, if exercised in pursuance of any agreement or arrangements entered into under this section, shall be limited to cases where the service in question would not be provided without subsidy and shall also be subject to sections 83 to 86 of this Act.
(4) Section 28 of the London Regional Transport Act 1984 (agreements with respect to the provision by London Regional Transport of extra services and facilities financed by certain other authorities) shall cease to apply in relation to agreements with district councils, and accordingly—
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(5) Subsection (3) above is without prejudice to section 6 of the London Regional Transport Act 1984 (obligation of London Regional Transport to invite tenders for carrying on activities in certain circumstances).
§ Mr. RidleyI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to take the following Lords amendments: No. 215, in clause 82, page 83, line 36, at end insert
and in sections 83 to 86 of this Act include references to London Regional Transport in relation to any exercise of their power under section 3(2) of the London Regional Transport Act 1984 (contracting-out powers) which by virtue of section (Cooperation between certain councils and London Regional Transport) (3) of this Act is subject to those sections.
§ No. 415, in schedule 7, page 154, line 11, column 3, at beginning insert—
| "In section 28, in subsection (1) paragraph (d) and the word "or" immediately preceding it, and in subsection (2) the words "and the council of any district"." |
§ Mr. RidleyAn important objective of the Bill is to ensure that local authorities co-operate with one another to achieve the most effective use of public funds. That cooperation will be especially important in the case of cross-boundary services, because travel patterns do not always respect adminstrative boundaries. Without these amendments, the Bill would not provide for such an arrangement between London Regional Transport, which is of course not a local authority, and adjoining county and district councils in subsidising services in which they both have an interest. The amendments put that right. They enable LRT to take the lead with a contribution from the council or vice versa. When LRT takes the lead in securing services under such an arrangement, it will be bound by the Bill's tendering provisions for local bus services in the same way as local authorities.
§ Question put and agreed to.