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Our detailed proposals for the composition, area, powers and financial structure of the new authority are as follows:
(130) Composition of the new authority. This is a question admitting of a great variety of answers, and the recommendations which we offer are capable of modification in detail. The overriding factors which have influenced us are these:
1. If all the bodies and authorities on whose behalf claims to representa- tion have been lodged were to be given the representation which they ask, the size of the new authority would be inflated to a point at which it would cease to be a workable executive authority, and would be converted into a sizeable deliberative assembly composed of representatives from every major interest in the West of Scotland. Having before us the example of many of the principal ports of the world, and of the governing bodies of the great transport, industrial and commercial enterprises of the United Kingdom, both public and private, we consider that nothing is to be gained, but much to be lost, by proceeding on any such lines. The aim should not be the setting up of an assembly of delegates appointed to push the claims of local or sectional interests and dependent upon their principals for instructions, but the creation of a united executive board, with the single purpose of improving and developing the River and Estuary in the general interest, and composed of persons of the widest possible experience and knowledge of trade, industry, transport and public affairs in Scotland, each of whom will make his own distinctive contribution to the work of the authority. To attain this end with efficiency, while at the same time showing due respect for the traditional methods hitherto adopted on the Clyde in relation to port administration, we recommend that the new authority should be restricted to twenty-one members, chosen as after- mentioned.
2. The members should give their services without remuneration, though it may be found that a salaried full-time chairman may be advisable. We suggest that an age limit of 70 at the time of election or appointment should be applied.
3. Predominant representation should be given to trading interests and to persons chosen by the payers of rates and dues, by whom the ordinary revenue of the undertaking is paid and who have the most direct interest in its efficiency.
4. In view of the substantial amounts of public money now sunk in different parts of the undertakings, and in order to secure constant co-ordin- ation with national policy in port provision and administration, the central government has now a strong claim to representation. A representative of dock labour interests ought also to be added.
5. Having regard to their long association with the provision and admin- istration of facilities on the Clyde, the representation of the Corporations of Glasgow and Greenock should be continued. With these two exceptions, we see no grounds for conceding representation to local authorities as such, for they will be contributing nothing from rates to the revenue of the new authority, and any communications which they may wish to make on the subject of port provision or administration can and should be made other- wise than through a nominee on the new authority. We are unable to see why local authorities should assert a claim to representation on the port authority any more than to representation on the Board of Directors of the Railway Companies. In any event to concede such a claim would seriously upset the balance of representation and unduly increase the size of the new authority.
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6. After full consideration we do not recommend the acceptance of the suggestion that a self-denying ordinance should be imposed whereby Glasgow and Greenock should be precluded from appointing to the authority present or past members of their own Councils. It is perhaps a pity that local authorities have for so long refrained from looking outside their own ranks for nominees on specialist authorities, for the rigid pursuit of such a method of procedure must sometimes restrict candidature by reference to considerations not primarily based on individual qualifications for service in the special capacity. It is of the first importance that the new authority should be ably manned by members qualified to contribute to the framing of policy in port administration and development; and, believing that Glasgow and Greenock are fully conscious of this fact, we suggest that they should be free to find their nominees either in or out of the respective Town Councils.
7. We are strongly averse to carrying forward into the new regime any trace of the device, exemplified, (so far as we know), nowhere but in the constitution of the Greenock Harbour Trust, of giving representation to bondholders or other creditors.
(131) Upon this footing the general scheme which we recommend is as follows:-
I appointed by the Admiralty.
2 appointed by the Minister of War Transport (or his peace-time suc- cessor) and the Secretary of State for Scotland, jointly, of whom one shall be representative of the shipbuilding industry within the
area.
I appointed by the Minister of Labour after consultation with organised
dock labour working on the undertaking.
12 elected by payers of dues and rates, on a franchise similar to that now in operation, 6 in respect of goods, and 6 in respect of ships.
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4 appointed by Glasgow Corporation.
I appointed by Greenock Corporation.`
(132) Experience has shown, as indeed is obvious, that time is needed to enable a member of such an authority to gain the practical experience required to enable him to make his due contribution, and we therefore suggest that the period of office should be five years and that retiring members should be eligible for re-appointment or re-election.
(133) We fully anticipate that the above scheme will evoke protest from various quarters. Indeed we cannot imagine any scheme which would not. But it represents the best balanced compromise which we have found it possible to devise in an effort to achieve functional efficiency rather than compliance with outworn tradition: and if the various appointing and electing bodies earnestly co-operate in the selection of suitably qualified nominees, we have every confidence that the new authority will be fully equal to the discharge of the heavy responsibilities which will fall upon it.
(134) Area of the new authority: We consider that the new authority should be in the full sense the port authority for the river and upper estuary and its tributary lochs from Albert Bridge, Glasgow, as far down as the Cumbrae Heads, and that the most convenient boundary line would be that prescribed for the Clyde Lighthouses Trust, viz: a line approximately east and west through the southmost point of Little Cumbrae, from Skipness to the Ayrshire coast.
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