Alistair Arkley

Sep 28 2005 By Alistair Arkley, The Journal

If you polled the North-East business community on the most important issues affecting their companies and the region's economy, I suspect transport would come near the top of the list.

That's why the proposal to set up a North-East Regional Transport Board seems a pretty good idea. Its role is to identify priorities and help shape recommendations to government.

It's certainly got a big job on its hands, especially as the views of the region have to be submitted to the Government by the end of January, which is why you would think it sensible to involve those with experience of both using and delivering transport services.

But the proposed make-up of the board, which will be chaired by the Government Office North-East, includes four members of the Association of North-East Councils and the regional assembly, one from One NorthEast, two from the environment and learning and skills sector and advisers from the Northern Way, the Department for Transport, Highways Agency, Regional Housing Board and an academic representative. There is just one place proposed for the business sector.

In other words, we have another body in the region which is dominated by bodies whose raison d'être is to spend money, with just one representative from the sector which generates money!

Yet here in the North-East we have some of the biggest transport operators in the country. Take for example Arriva, Go-Ahead, Northgate and PD Ports - all Stock Exchange-listed - and we have hundreds of companies, large and small, which depend on transport to get their products to market.

Of course, there is the usual promise that the board will "ensure appropriate engagement and consultation with a wide range of regional stakeholders" - and indeed a significant amount of money is being spent on hiring consultants to do just that. But one is bound to ask if it wouldn't be more effective to give those who are actually involved in the region's transport services a direct input, a point I understand was made by a council representative at a recent meeting of the regional assembly.

This is not just an argument about places around the table. It goes to the heart of a question the business community is increasingly asking: Do government and politicians in the region really want to work in partnership with us or are they paying lip service?

The situation has been brought into even sharper focus as a result of the recent division between the regional assembly and the Association of North-East Councils. It seems that on every regional organisation we have to include representatives of both the association, made up entirely of councils, and the assembly, which is dominated by councils!