CTA Conference

Key notes

Louise Ellman, MP

Often key note speeches say little and merely act as a publicity vehicle for some politician. At last week’s CTA Conference there were, unusually, two key note speeches and they equally unusually did not come at the start of the Conference. They were also unusual in that they were both very good speeches. The first was made by Louise Ellman MP, who is Chairman of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee and has been since 2008. She is MP for Liverpool Riverside. The Transport Select Committee is made up of 11 MPs from right across the political spectrum and its job is to scrutinise the Government’s transport policy and make recommendations on whether it is right or needs to be improved. She explained that one of its current projects was looking at public transport provision in isolated communities – rural and urban. This covers all forms of public transport from buses and trains, CTs and DRTs, car schemes and taxis. The Committee began collecting evidence by written submissions last summer and received over 100 submissions. These are now being analysed and from that the Committee will set up a formal inquiry the results of which will then be presented to Parliament. If you want to find out more Google ‘House Of Commons Transport Select Committee’ and click on ‘inquiries’.

As Louise said, ‘People from different communities across the UK should have access to adequate transport services. We will be looking at how best to meet the needs of passengers in isolated communities, including rural areas, island communities, and suburban or urban areas with poor transport connections. We are particularly interested in the provision of bus and rail services, as well as the role of Community Transport services.’

It will particularly look at whether Government funding plans are working and especially the area of concessionary travel.

Graham Pendlebury

The second keynote was by Graham Pendlebury, Director of Local Transport at DfT. He works directly for Baroness Kramer who is of course the DfT Minister responsible for buses having taken over earlier this year from the excellent Norman Baker. Graham spoke passionately about the need to ensure that, even in these straightened financial times, isolated and vulnerable people were adequately provided with access to public transport where they needed it. He praised the work being done by CTs and commercial operators to sustain rural services and said that the subject is a high priority within DfT. Like other speakers he called for greater co-operation and openness between the voluntary sector and the commercial sector. His belief is that solutions to the problems are possible and that such co-operation can only result in a better future for all concerned. He said that measures to protect vulnerable services and reduce isolation would receive the full backing of the Department.