HC Deb 10 March 1870 vol 199 c1625
VISCOUNT ENFIELD

said, he would beg to ask the hon. Baronet the Member for Lambeth, Whether it be true that the joint Committee for freeing from toll Kew Bridge and other bridges, under the Act of 1869, have selected the Kingston Bridge in preference to the other four bridges—viz., Kew, Hampton Court, Walton, and Staines; and, whether he can state why the Act of 1869 (for accelerating such freedom from tolls) has been put in force for one bridge only, to the exclusion of the other four bridges?

SIR JAMES LAWRENCE

said, in reply, that it was quite true the Committee had decided to open Kingston Bridge free of toll, and this would be done at the end of the present week. He could not admit the correctness of the statement, that because one bridge had been selected as the first to be free from toll the decision necessarily excluded others. As a matter of fact, the owners of other bridges had been communicated with, and as soon as the arrangements could be completed these other bridges would be opened also. The Committee were most anxious that no delay should occur in opening the bridges as was intended by the Act of Parliament.