§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Captain Margesson.]
§ 11.0 p.m.
§ Mr. MOLSONI wish to draw the attention of the House and of the Minister of Agriculture to the deplorable flooding which has again taken place in the Bentley and Arksey district in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, and to impress upon the Minister the need for the taking of immediate steps to deal with the problem. I need not emphasise the suffering and the loss which have been caused to all those residing in the district by these floods. There are, in that district alone, more than 5,000 acres under water, about 1,000 houses which are to a greater or less extent flooded, more than 4,000 inhabitants who have been affected, and no fewer than 500 men, women and children, with no possible accommodation, who have been housed in the local schools. Nor is it less important to remember that the Bentley Colliery, the source of livelihood of the whole of that centre of population, has been flooded as far as the pit-head, and that at one time there appeared to be some danger that the pit itself would be flooded.
Hon. Members have been familiarised with these conditions by what they have seen in the newspapers, and the Minister of Agriculture has had the advantage of receiving official reports from his own inspector and the inspector sent down by the Minister of Health. I would take this opportunity of expressing the gratitude of the people in those areas for the promptitude with which the right hon. Gentleman sent an inspector down. The people of Bentley and Arksey are as able as any other people to endure with patience and fortitude what can properly be described as an act of God. During this year they have been tried with the ordeal by fire and the ordeal by water, but when twice within the space of nine months floods have occurred which, in the opinion of all competent engineers, are capable of being avoided if necessary drainage works are carried out on the Lower Don, I think the limit of human patience has been reached.
I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman will use the argument that the 965 trouble could not have been foreseen, for, as he is aware, I have been in communication with his Department, and ever since November I have been pressing upon his Department the danger which has now come to pass. The difficulties, of course, are that the jurisdiction for drainage matters for the Lower Don is in the hands of the Doncaster Drainage Board, a board that was set up by an Act of this House some two or two and a-half years ago, and that that board is still without the financial means to carry through the great work, costing perhaps something in the neighbourhood of £250,000, which would be necessary to clear out the Lower Don and to prevent a repetition of this flooding. Even if the Doncaster Drainage Board had the means of raising the funds necessary there would be, in the opinion of those of us who are concerned with the Doncaster district this further objection, that the flood water which is causing all this damage in the Lower Don is contributed by the riparian corporations further up the river and upon its tributaries. In our submission it would be inequitable, that, shall I say, the innocent wrongdoers in the high lands who are contributing this water, should be relieved of all expenditure for these works and that those of us who are called upon to receive these contributions in the Lower Don should have to bear the whole of that burden.
As the Minister is aware, it has been suggested that the simplest and fairest solution of this problem would be for the Lower Don to be transferred from the Doncaster Drainage Board to the Ouse Catchment Board, which is already responsible for the upper reaches of the same river. That would solve the two difficulties, because, in the first place, the Ouse Catchment Board has funds, which the Doncaster Drainage Board has not, and, in the second place, in raising the funds that are necessary the Ouse Catchment Board, with its great area, including the whole of the basin of the River Don. would bring into contribution those corporations and other bodies further up the river whom I have described as innocent wrong-doers. This transfer of jurisdiction over the Lower Don can only be made with the co-operation and assistance of the Minister of Agriculture. There is, I believe, some slight doubt as to 966 how that transfer could effectually be made in accordance with the conditions which have been laid down by the Ouse Catchment Board as conditions precedent to their agreeing to take over the Lower Don. It may be that that could be done by order of the Minister. It may be that it would entail legislation. But there is no possibility of anything being done to prevent a repetition of these disastrous and destructive floods unless something of that kind is carried through.
Only this evening, since I asked my question in the House, I received a telegram from the Doncaster Drainage Board saying that they had met to-day, but they found that the most that they were able to undertake to do at the present time was to spend £500 on remedial works—£500, when the estimated cost of carrying out adequate measures upon the Lower Don is in the neighbourhood of £250,000. It is not, I hasten to say, that the Doncaster Drainage Board is lacking in good will, but, being without funds, the most it can do is to offer this small contribution towards undertaking what is most urgently necessary. I ask the right hon. Gentleman to give us an assurance that he will direct his attention to the need for bringing about cooperation between these two drainage authorities. Recognising as I do that their co-operation is highly desirable, if not quite necessary, I hope that at any rate he will do all that he can to bring about that agreement and use his powers in order to implement it if and when it does come about.
But even so it has been estimated that these works, when undertaken, would take five years to carry through, and I would put it to the House that the people of Bentley and Arksey, who have been flooded out of their houses now twice in the space of nine months, who twice have known the pit, the source of their livelihood, unable to work because of these inundations, capable as they are of being prevented by the necessary drainage works, can hardly be expected to endure with patience until some unspecified time after the year 1937 when they may reasonably expect to be free from any apprehension of this happening again. I hope that I shall not appeal-unreasonable if I say that to be told that conversations are being carried on, or that negotiations have been initiated, 967 or even that all avenues are being explored, will not satisfy the people, who are asking that something should be done immediately. I do not know that they would even be satisfied with the soporiferous words so often used by the Treasury Bench that there has been and will be no avoidable delay.
I would like the right hon. Gentleman to give us an undertaking that he does recognise the vital importance of this matter, that he recognises that, as Minister of Agriculture, he is not less responsible for protecting the farmers and the urban residents of this country from the elements than from foreign competition, and that he will undertake to bring to the notice of the drainage authorities not only the need to carry through great and comprehensive schemes, but also that he will impress upon them the need for taking emergency measures, some of which are at present under discussion by the engineers, in order that in a very few months the people of those areas may be relieved from the apprehension of any further disasters of the same kind.
§ Mr. T. WILLIAMSI should like to make a single observation upon the statement which has just been made by my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster (Mr. Molson). I could say "ditto" to everything that he has said, but I want to go one step further. The right hon. Gentleman will recall that in September last year a similar tragic circumstance arose in the parish of Bentley, when 1,500 people were rendered homeless as the result of a flood. The same cause is in existence to-day, and when the then Member for Doncaster appealed to the right hon. Gentleman to provide some assistance for the Doncaster Board, or for the Ouse Catchment Board, should they be persuaded to take over this responsibility, the right hon. Gentleman was unwilling to make any advance in that direction. Unfortunately retribution has soon appeared, and the circumstances explained so lucidly by my hon. Friend are here again in seven short months.
He and I had the privilege, if we can call it a privilege, of riding in a boat on Sunday last down second-class roads where no road could be seen, just touching the hedge-tops. We went in a boat across field after field where we scarcely 968 either saw or felt the hedge-tops. We were informed, as we went along quite smoothly over the water, that this field was planted with potatoes and that field with something else. Worse still, apart from the human tragedy to these people who have been rendered homeless twice during a few months, this has been an appalling disaster for the farmers, who for three successive years have lost almost the whole of their crops exclusively as the result of the failure to undertake the work of drainage in this area. Our patience has been exercised and our restraint has been controlled to an almost alarming extent. The drainage problem was investigated by a Royal Commission in 1923. It reported in 1925 and produced an interim report for the Doncaster area because of its peculiar position. The board, however, was not set up until 1929. They had no funds at their disposal. Consequently, big remedial measures were not possible at that time.
Nothing short of a Government grant would have made it possible for the Doncaster Board to undertake the work, or the Ouse Catchment Board to accept responsibility and have the lower River Don transferred as part of their obligations. I know that the right hon. Gentleman's officials have been working very hard to persuade the Ouse Catchment Board to take over this responsibility, but I suggest to the right hon. Gentleman that the transfer is not likely to take place unless tremendous pressure is brought to bear from his Department, on top of which some financial assistance ought to be promised in the early stages. It is simply no use year after year just making promises of the kind that carry no weight, and leaving the position exactly as it was in the past year. These farmers have reached a stage when they are hopelessly insolvent. The people who have been rendered homeless have reached a stage when they now feel that no season can pass without their suffering from the same demoralising disaster which has overtaken them again this year. I again plead with the right hon. Gentleman and supplement what the hon. Member for Doncaster has said. Here is a vast area of splendid agricultural land, some of the best in any part of the country.
If the drainage work were undertaken, these farmers who are insolvent because 969 of disaster after disaster, simply could not bear more rates being imposed on them. The Lower Don has been left as it was; no supplementary drains have been provided, and each time we experience heavy losses and the floods from Sheffield, Barnsley, Penistone and the higher reaches come down to Doncaster. The result is the disaster that we have had again this time. I plead with the right hon. Gentleman not for kind words or expressions of sympathy. They are very nice to listen to but they do not solve the problem. I appeal to him to appeal to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the one thing calculated to produce action on the part of the Board, that is the granting of funds to enable them to carry out this work.
If that were done, there would be hope that in future the farmer will be able to harvest his crops, and that the people of the Bentley area will be able to settle down knowing that, come winter come summer, their furniture will be theirs and will not belong to the flood tide.
§ Mr. GLOSSOPI support entirely what has been said by the hon. Member for Doncaster (Mr. Molson) and the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams). I happen to live within a hundred yards of the banks of the Lower Don, but should any hon. Members be hastening to offer me sympathy in connection with the recent floods, I must add that I am fortunate enough not to have been a victim of them, because our bank of the river is nine inches higher than the opposite bank. I have a good deal of knowledge of local conditions, and I can tell the House there have been very much bigger floods during the last 60 years, but we did not have the floods recurring so often until the last few years. I would point out to the Minister that it is really necessary that something drastic be done in the near future. With all these new housing estates around Sheffield and the use of macadamised roads, we get the water pouring down upon us very much more quickly than was the case before these housing estates were started. Further, before the War there was a great deal of barge traffic up and down the River Don, with the result that the river was kept scoured out. Since the War that traffic has almost entirely stopped, and we who live on the banks of the Don can see the river silting up.
970 At present we are troubled very largely by willows, which were planted on the banks only a few years ago in order to strengthen them. Probably those willows are serving a useful purpose in strengthening the banks, but they have been allowed to grow to extraordinary dimensions, and are now impeding the passage of the water towards the sea. I do not suggest that the mere scouring of the Don or the cutting of the willows will entirely rectify the problem, but I feel that if, while a more elaborate scheme is being prepared by the various drainage boards, the cleansing of the Don and the cutting of the willows could be carried out it would probably do something towards preventing further flooding until a more comprehensive scheme, which would undoubtedly take several years to complete, could be carried out. As one who knows local conditions, I would urge on the Minister that these constant floodings result in national loss quite apart from the loss to the individuals. I hope that his Department will do something to encourage the drainage boards to get on with the work rather than occupy so much time in talking.
§ The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Sir John Gilmour)I recognise at once the very temperate manner in which my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster (Mr. Molson) raised this question tonight and I think it is right that it should have been brought to the attention of the House. Everyone must sympathise with the unfortunate sufferers. I regret if any words I use to-night may seem honeyed, but we are none the less perfectly genuine in our expressions of sympathy, not only with those whose houses have been inundated but with the fanning community there and also the community in general. This House has, from time to time considered many schemes of this kind. The Act of 1930 set up drainage boards and in this particular case, there was a previous Act, setting up the Doncaster Drainage Board. I am very anxious to make it perfectly clear to those concerned that anything which my Department can do in bringing together these people to discuss this problem we shall do and have been doing. It is quite true that we had floods of a similar character last year and ever since then, our efforts have been turned towards trying to find a solution and to stimulate those who are carrying out this work. 971 The Doncaster board has powers similar to other boards elsewhere. If it is a fact that in consequence of the recent Act they have had to make a fresh valuation and to impose a rate I must point out that there has been some delay in carrying that out and they are not in a position to impose a rate at the present moment, but on the other hand it is a fact that some accommodation might be arrived at on this problem, and that in regard to the area which has suffered most there are other areas more capable of contributing something towards a solution of the problem. Be that as it may, I hope to receive a deputation on this subject in a short time, and if we can in any way assist undoubtedly we shall do so.
The hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams) raised the point that anything we might hope to do in this matter by our good offices and co-operation would be no good unless we gave a definite and considerable Government grant. I can, of course, realise that point of view, but it is my duty, and I think it is right, to say at once to the House that the Government are not in a position to make large grants to this or any other of these bodies. At the present time I have at my disposal a very moderate sum of money available for matters of very grave emergency, and in so far as that sum is available, it will be used for those emergencies which are of the gravest character; but I should be deluding those who are interested in this problem if I were to suggest in any way that there is available, in the unhappy circumstances of the times in which we live, Government money which can be used for this purpose.
972 On the other hand, I think that the result of conversations which are taking place at the present time may lead to-some solution and further co-operation. I do not know whether it may need legislation, and there again I have to say to the House that I should have to look most carefully at any proposition which would entail legislation. In any case that legislation could not take place until the autumn, and therefore it is very desirable that those who are discussing these problems at the present time should try and find any kind of cooperative measure which will avoid that necessity. If, however, in the end it is found to be essential, I shall of course look at it with sympathy and with the very greatest care. I will only say in conclusion that I hope that there may be a general co-operation between all the bodies concerned, and that in these very difficult times a better solution for the future may be found.
§ Mr. COCKSWill the Minister at the same time consider the very similar question of the Valley of the Trent?
§ Mr. T. WILLIAMSI should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman if he is aware that this House will willingly allow such a Measure as appears to be necessary in this case to pass through in one day, so that if by co-operation agreement can be reached, there would be no necessity to wait till the autumn?
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at Twenty - nine Minutes after Eleven o'Clock.