§ MR. CHEETHAMasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with regard to the Crown property of the Southport foreshore, which in April last the Duchy agreed to sell, to the extent of 9,000 acres, to the Lords of the Manor for £15,000, whether he is aware that the latter are now asking for 1,286 acres alone no less a sum than £25,000 from the Southport Corporation; and, whether he is able to hold out any prospect of the good offices he has undertaken to use in this matter resulting in the acquisition by the people of Southport, at a fair and reasonable price, of the 4,000 acres of foreshore conterminous with the Borough, the possession of which they regard as of vital consequence to the development of a favourite marine resort of the Lancashire manufacturing population?
§ MR. DODSONSir, until this morning I had had no official information on the subject. On the 29th of June last, 1740 a comprehensive letter was addressed to the Corporation from the Duchy Office, to which there has been no reply; and apparently the matter has been very much taken out of my hands by the Corporation negotiating directly with the landowners. This morning I have received a letter from the solicitors of the landowners stating that, in response to an application from the Corporation, they had offered to sell the whole of the foreshore opposite the town proper, an area of about 2,600 acres, for 2s. 6d. per acre for recreation and sanitary purposes only, and that they are also prepared to sell a further area of 1,286 acres, which comprises, besides foreshore, some very valuable building land with a frontage to the shore of 900 yards, for the sum of £25,000, practically without any restrictions as to its use. I understand that no reply has yet been received to these offers.
§ MR. CHEETHAMasked if it was not a fact that that which was properly speaking foreshore could not be turned to any profitable account unless an Act of Parliament were obtained to sanction the appropriation?
§ MR. DODSONSir, no part of the foreshore can be diverted from its present uses to the injury of the public without the previous consent of Parliament. I understand the landowners made the offer of 2,600 acres at 2s. 6d. per acre, leaving it open to the Corporation to take the whole or any part of it.