§ 84. Mr. W. BAKERasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the Departmental Committee on the Taxation and Regulation of Road Vehicles, in their Second Report, strongly supported pneumatics up to an unladen weight of 3¾ tons; whether he is aware that pneumatic tyres are fitted on the omnibuses running in Edinburgh and in many other centres; and whether he will consider the desirability of permitting the London General Omnibus Company to fit pneumatic tyres to their double-deck fleet?
§ Sir H. BARNSTON (Comptroller of the Household)The Home Secretary is advised that few, if any, of the 1713 double-deck omnibuses licensed in the Metropolitan Police District come within the scope of the Committee's recommendation, and he is not aware that any such omnibuses fitted with pneumatic tyres are at present in use anywhere in Great Britain. A number of single-deck omnibuses fitted with pneumatic tyres have been licensed by the Commissioner of Police as an experiment; but until the present trials, which must necessarily take some time, are completed, there can be no question of extending the trials to omnibuses of the double-deck type.