§ MR. MCLARENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Commissioner of Police is in the habit of appointing standings for omnibuses in bye-streets within the Metropolitan area when they are not plying for hire, and that the Vestry of Hammersmith, as well as residents in such streets, have objected to his action; whether the Commissioner has any power to appoint such standings, and, if so, under what section of what statute; and whether, if the Commissioner has no such power, he will direct the Commissioner to discontinue the practice of appointing omnibus stands in such cases, and to leave the local authorities, under the Highway and other Acts, to deal with omnibuses standing in bye-streets?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYIn dealing with the stopping-places of omnibuses, the Commissioner acts under Section 29 of the Act 6 and 7 Vic. cap. 86. No standings for omnibuses are appointed, but the practice is to allow them to remain at convenient places in various streets for a few 1490 minutes at a time; at such times they are still technically plying for hire. In the particular case to which the hon. Member refers, no objection was made by the Vestry; the place at which the omnibuses stand is against a hoarding where no obstruction, and, practically, no inconvenience, can be caused to anyone, and the time allowed for stopping is not more than four minutes.