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Local Transport Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord. I do not in any way wish to rerun the arguments that we had during the passage of the Local Government Act 2000 or the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, but the noble Lord will be aware that here, in another place and in the local government community moving towards single person and cabinet executives was highly controversial. I suspect that for many current PTA/PTE areas, moving towards that model would be a step too far. They are by their nature very different beasts from local authorities. If it was a step too far for local authorities, I suspect that it would be even more controversial among the passenger transport authorities, because they are a coming together of component local authorities. The idea that one person or even a small group of people could be chosen from among those, without any political balance, would upset the arrangements that have served extremely well for the past couple of decades. The Government will interfere with that at their peril.