§ MR. ALCOCKsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, what is the amount of the Loan advanced by the Government for Battersea Park, Chelsea Bridge, and Chelsea Embankment, and what is the amount to be deducted for land sold to the Railway Company and to Chelsea Hospital, or disposed of in any other way, in order that it may he clearly understood by those who desire to remove the toll-bars at Chelsea Bridge what sum may be required to be raised by an appeal to public subscription, with a view to make up any deficiency (if the surplus land should not fetch the full amount due), so as to pay off in full all the money lent by 1503 Government for the purpose of this great metropolitan improvement?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSin reply said, that the sum of £200,000 had been advanced by the Government on account of the construction of Battersea Park; £58,000 of interest was due on that; and the annual interest was £8,900 per annum. The liabilities beyond that were fixed in the following manner. In the first place, any sum that might be obtained by the sale of land, or in any other way whatever, was appropriated to the formation and maintenance of the park; then they were to be devoted to the repayment of the advances by the State; and when that had been accomplished, there was a further liability lying over for the creation of a fund for other metropolitan improvements. There was, therefore, no possibility, under the present state of the law, of any sum of money accruing from the sale of land becoming available for the redemption of the tolls on Chelsea Bridge. As to the actual sales of land, he had to state that land to the value of £65,000 had been sold to the Railway Company; and land to the value of £16,500 to Chelsea Hospital. But on the latter sum there were many charges to be defrayed before any portion of it could be made available for the payment of any portion of the debt due to the State on account of the construction of the new bridge. There was, besides the advance to which he had alluded, a further loan of £80,000 on the bridge. So that, if the whole of the land in Battersea Park were sold to-morrow, owing to the present state of the law affecting this question, not one halfpenny of it would be available for the redemption of these tolls.