MR. J. W. LOWTHERI beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the school buildings begun by the late Flit-wick School Board under the sanction of the Department in December, 1892, are still uncompleted; whether the present School Board discontinued the construction of those buildings and forfeited a sum exceeding £600 to the builder for cancelling his contract; whether the Department threatened to declare the Board a Board in default if the buildings were not carried out by the 29th December, 1893; what is the cause of the delay on the part of the Department in carrying out its decision; and what steps the Department contemplate taking in order to put an end to such an inconvenient state of affairs and to prevent further heavy losses to the ratepayers of Flitwick?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. ACLAND, York, W.R., Rotherham)The first three paragraphs of the hon. Member's question are substantially correct. The reason for the delay is, that at the last moment the Board submitted further proposals to the Department, and I am now considering, after reference to the Inspector, whether these proposals can be accepted as satisfactory.