§ MR. BIGWOOD (Middlesex, Brentford)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether anything can be done to expedite the procedure under the Light Railways Act, 1896; whether he is aware that an interval of two, three, and more years has in some cases elapsed between the date of the application for the Order and the date of its confirmation by the Board of Trade; and whether there is any prospect of the County of Middlesex Light Railways Order, 1903, for which application was made in May, 1901, being confirmed by the Board of Trade before the prorogation of Parliament.
(Answered by Mr. Bonar Law.) Such delays as have occasionally occurred in 774 proceedings upon applications for Light Railway Orders have been due to postponements of stages for the benefit of parties where conflicting interests have had to be reconciled by agreement. In the majority of such cases these delays have occurred before the Light Railway Commissioners have been in a position to settle the Orders and submit them to the Board of Trade. The only way of preventing such delays would be to fix precise limits of time for the several stages, and rigorously to enforce them by the rejection of applications upon failure to proceed within those limits. I do not think this would be advantageous. In the case of the Order mentioned by the hon. Member, it is to be pointed out that it consolidates Orders applied for in November, 1901, and May, 1902, with the Orders applied for in May, 1901. The total length of lines proposed to be authorised by these combined Orders is over twenty miles. The Consolidated Order was submitted to the Board for confirmation on the 23rd of last month; the time limited for lodging objections to confirmation expired on the 20th instant; and the hearing of these objections has been fixed for the 8th of next month. The consideration of conflicting claims and the settlement of the Order will thereafter be proceeded with without delay, but it is quite impossible to fix a date by which confirmation can be given.