HC Deb 29 April 1907 vol 173 cc546-7
MR. HAROLD COX:

I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether in any scheme of land legislation he may submit to the House he will include measures for restoring to public use and enjoyment roadside strips, public footpaths, and commons that have been illegally appropriated by private persons and are now held without legal title.

SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

The matter that my hon. friend refers to will not be lost sight of, though I hardly think it would be desirable to overload the Bills which we have contemplated by provisions such as he suggests. I may perhaps remind him that the Local Government Act of 1894 empowers local authorities to take certain steps in maintaining rights of common.

VISCOUNT HELMSLEY

Will the right hon. Gentleman state upon what grounds he contemplates fresh legislation in regard to land in England when the President of the Board of Agriculture stated last session in the House of Lords that the Agricultural Holdings Act, then before Parliament, represented the whole policy of the Government as regards land.

SIR. H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I do not see how that arises in the very least degree out of the Question.