§ MR. CARR-GOMM (Southwark, Rotherhithe)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether at the present time the Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis and the City of London find it possible to carry out any of the provisions of the Section 11 of the Metropolitan Streets Act, 1867, which deal with the control of the routes of vehicles; and, if not, whether he will state the reason for this failure of the Act.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe Commissioners of the Metropolitan and City Police report to me that the section is practically inoperative. The difficulty in making 757 use of it to control the routes of vehicles arises, first, from the fact that it applies only to those streets which are within the special limits of the Act; and, secondly, from the proviso in the section that the number of Metropolitan stage carriages that may pass down any street in pursuance of their ordinary trade cannot be limited. I may refer my hon. friend on this subject to Paragraph 166 of the Report of the Royal Commission on London Traffic.