(26 Apr 2017, 1:27 pm)Adrian The Commons amendments have been agreed by the Lords, and the bill is scheduled to receive royal assent tomorrow (27th April).
Yes. It looks like the MEN were slightly wide of the mark as its approval by both Houses left Grayling's hands tied. Apparently, he had said that if he was Transport Secretary at the time the Bill was first mooted he would have put a stop to it.
The decision is just in time for the Mayoral Elections and it is significant that - publicly, at least - all the GM Candidates (even the Conservative and millionaire independant) have said they exercise the option to "control" Bus services in their region. That doesn't necessarily mean franchising, but whatever pitfalls an dangers lie ahead with such control, there is virtually nobody in GM who would claim De-reg has been a success. Certainly not amongst the county's hundreds of thousands of non-motorists.
