§ LIEUT-COLONEL TUFNELL (Essex, S.E.)To ask the President of the Local Government Board if he has received a petition from the Essex Field Club against the proposed removal of ten parishes from 928 Essex to Hertfordshire, and what steps, if any, are being taken in the matter; also if he is aware that three parishes removed from Essex to Cambridgeshire for administrative purposes only, in 1894, are now treated as entirely belonging to the latter county, and that all public notices deal with these parishes as being in Cambridgeshire, and the ordnance maps are now altered to recognise these three parishes as being part of Cambridgeshire.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) I have received the petition referred to. A Bill to confirm a Provisional Order altering the two administrative counties had been read a second time in this House; but the Essex County Council have petitioned against it, and the matter will now come before a Select Committee. Representations to the effect of the statement in the latter part of the Question are contained in the letter from the Essex Field Club; but I understand that whilst the ordnance maps show the three parishes referred to as being part of the administrative county of Cambridge, they also indicate that there are purposes for which they do not form part of that county.