§ MR. BOULTON (Huntingdonshire, Ramsey)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if the urban district council, Ramsey, Hunts,, has given any explanation why the council has declined to apply for permission to put into operation the 1721 Parish Councils Act of; 1894, so that the council may acquire land by compulsory powers for allotments.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI communicated with the urban district council on this subject. They appear to have considered that the grounds on which it was desired that they should obtain the powers of a parish council under Section 10 of the Local Government Act, 1894, with regard to allotments, were, firstly, that more than one acre of land could then have been let to an applicant, and, secondly, that the lands could have been hired compulsorily. They point out, however, that if lands were hired compulsorily the council could only have allotted to an applicant either four acres of pasture land or three acres of pasture and one acre of arable land. But they say that there is no pasture land in many districts where the applicants reside, neither is there a desire for any, and that the result of the compulsory powers would have been that the applicants could have obtained one acre of arable land. This they can do now. It is further stated that the council are quite certain that lands taken under compulsory powers would be at a considerably higher rent than they now are, that wherever lands have been asked for they have been granted, and that more land has been offered to the council than they had applicants for.