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Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 79: 79: Clause 72, page 62, line 31, after ““councils”” insert ““from among their elected members”” The noble Lord said: I think that the Minister referred to the next amendment; I presume that this was the one to which he referred. The Bill provides for unelected members to be appointed, and the amendment seeks to clarify what could happen. It appears that unelected members could be appointed contrary to the views or wishes of the integrated transport authority. The Bill provides that the majority of members of an ITA must be elected members appointed by its constituent council, but the amendment would ensure local determination of whether an ITA should have unelected members, the appointees, and the status of the appointees on the ITA, including any voting rights. The amendment would clarify that any members nominated by bodies other than local councils must be appointed by the ITA. In effect, that would give an ITA a veto over the members nominated to it by non-constituent councils. I would have thought that that would be required so that an ITA could develop its own governance arrangements and would not be subject to the imposition of unapproved, unelected members. I hope that when the Minister responds he will be able to say something helpful along the lines of the objective sought by the amendment. Although the Bill provides that the majority of members must be appointed by their constituent councils, the rest could be working contrary to the views of constituent bodies and of the integrated transport authority. Surely the ITA should have some rights not to exclude people who are not elected but to have some say at least over whether people who are nominated should be able to come on to the ITA. I beg to move.