§ Mr. Dodsworthasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek to remove the statutory restrictions preventing the development of flexible transport arrangements in rural and semi-rural areas operated by individuals or groups on a self-financing basis; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MarksNo. Consultations on rural transport problems have shown that 545W there is no general agreement about the extent to which alterations to the public service vehicle licensing code would offer rural communities an assurance of improvement in transport provision. This was explained in the statement by my hon. Friend the Minister for Transport on 3rd December 1975—[Vol. 901, cols. 613–4.1—in answer to the hon. Member for Rye (Mr. Godman Irvine). The statement also set out the Governments intention to promote a number of experimental schemes to test out on the ground what can be done to help rural communities, both under the present licensing code, and by modest relaxations of it, within the areas of the experiments.