We do love a good leaving party...
Commission for Integrated Transport
is getting the axe as part of the government quango cull, and while we're not ones to celebrate other folks' misfortune (usually), in this case we're delighted to make an exception.
The Commission has been responsible for many unfriendly suggestions over the years, supporting calls for speed-limiters in cars, promoting road pricing technology trials and pressing for use of the Vehicle Excise Duty programme to punish those of us who feel our cars might just be making a smaller 'dent' on the global environment than a network of new coal-fired power stations in China, airline travel and all those stinky container ships.
"The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) was established in 1999 to provide independent advice to Government on integrated transport policy in England via evidence-based research. However the department has concluded that the emphasis should now be on high-level strategic advice rather than detailed research. This can be achieved more cost effectively by the Department for Transport engaging directly with experts through a new informal strategic transport advisory group, rather than an arms length body," says the official announcement. "Hooray!" says us.
Also disappearing from the DFT roster of supported quangos are Cycling England, the Renewable Fuels Agency (anyone know we had one?) and the Railway Heritage Committee.