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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 37: 37: Clause 9, page 7, line 13, at end insert ““, by allowing such appeals to be submitted at any time rather than 28 days after the commencement of a scheme as provided for by the 2000 Act”” The noble Lord said: This is the last amendment and I rise to move it in the fond hope that having given us no concessions at all this afternoon, the Minister may feel that I have hit upon something here which is an anomaly. At the moment, appeals have to be submitted within 28 days of the commencement of a scheme. That is a perilously short time during which neither the local authority nor the operator will have any idea of whether the scheme is a good or a bad one. The present rules on this state that unless an appeal is lodged within the first 28 days, it cannot be made. Earlier I gave figures for the use of bus services in Oxfordshire and I know very well that appeals were made. In the event, those appeals were withdrawn because the volume of business was much greater than had been anticipated either by the local authority or by the operator. But that will not always be the case. Other operators which have been badly affected have in fact been ruled out by the 28-day time limit. It is a very short period in which to judge the development of a bus business, one that depends on seasonal fluctuations and many other things. The amendment provides that appeals can be ““submitted at any time””. The Minister may decide that an appeal should be submitted with a certain period and I would accept that, but my main submission is that 28 days is far too short a time in which to make a sound judgment as to the efficacy of a scheme and the price at which it has been purchased. I ask the Minister at least to say that this is something that, in the light of our brief experience we have had of the operation of the scheme, he is prepared to look at again. I beg to move.