WHEN ANNE GODFREY REVEALED - in Buying Business Travel's January/February issue - the scale and scope of the changes she planned to make at the GTMC, more cynical observers might have harboured doubts.
Although it has made huge strides in recent years, the GTMC remains an essentially conservative organisation. Laudable though the new chief exec's ambitions might be, could she convince the membership?
The answer, after just a few short weeks at the helm, would appear to be a resounding "yes". The secretariat has already moved to new, smaller offices, the Business Travel Manifesto has been produced and, most importantly, made very public. Godfrey's GTMC is clearly going places, and fast. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Government policy.
Guest speaker at the breakfast launch of the manifesto was Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman, chair of the House of Commons' transport select committee, and while her presence could be seen as a small step in the right direction, her remarks were far from encouraging. Ellman recognised and welcomed the GTMC's input, but much of her short speech was devoted to past activities rather than future aspirations. Worse, she gave a clear warning that when the inevitable spending cuts come, (regardless of which party holds the treasury purse-strings) transport is likely to be high on the hit list. It is politically much easier to slash planned spending, Ellman confessed, than to pull the financial plug on services that are already up and running.
Bob Papworth