HC Deb 27 June 1934 vol 291 cc1280-2

12.2 a.m.

Sir W. BRASS

I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty praying that the Regulations made by the Minister of Transport under Section 111 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, entitled the Traffic Signs (Pedestrian Crossings) Provisional Regulations, 1934, be annulled.

Captain STRICKLAND

I beg to second the Motion.

12.3 a.m.

Mr. STANLEY

I was very nearly deprived, by the withdrawal of the first Motion, of the opportunity of answering the questions put to me. With regard to the difficulty in Bond Street, on quite other grounds the present practice has been found undesirable, and arrangements are being made for its alteration. I thank my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Pembroke (Major G. Lloyd George) for his suggestion. I think the starting of the new experiment will be a very convenient peg on which to hang propaganda to clear up difficulties. I sympathise with my hon. Friend the Member for Bilston (Mr. G. Peto) in the dilemma in which he is placed. The sign "Please cross here" has been up probably for 10 years—it was probably put up by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Wallasey (Lieut.-Colonel Moore-Brabazon)—and as my hon. Friend and everyone else have disregarded it totally for those 10 years, it will not make any difference either way. It has no connection with the particular scheme which we are now discussing. It is a relic of the days when optimistic people thought you could ensure safety on the road by a courteous appeal to the road users. With regard to the suggestion of my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Uxbridge (Major Llewellin) as to the different marking of the two forms of crossing, the controlled and the uncontrolled, that is a possibility which I am considering very carefully. The difficulty is that there may be cases where one would like to have a crossing but where it would be a controlled crossing by day, when the policeman was there, and uncontrolled at night. It may be that the solution would be to have no crossing there at all, but I am considering the question of different types of markings for the different types of crossings.

Sir W. BRASS

What rights have pedestrians at the Whitehall crossing, where there is no control?

Mr. STANLEY

There are no crossings put down anywhere where there are no police or lights. I take it that my hon. and gallant Friend is thinking of the crossing opposite Scotland Yard. I can assure him that no crossings are put down where control of traffic is not exercised by policemen or lights. I do not mean to say that there is always a policeman standing on a particular crossing, but the line of traffic which goes over that crossing is under the control either of a policeman or of lights.

Sir W. BRASS

Is the control sometimes in a place where the policeman has to control two crossings, with traffic going in different directions? If so, that is not the practice in Paris, where the police are always on the crossing itself and do not control the traffic going in different directions.

Mr. STANLEY

That is one of the difficulties which the progress of the experiment so far has revealed.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.

The remaining Orders were read, and postponed.

It being after half-past Eleven of the Clock upon Wednesday evening, Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned at Six Minutes after Twelve o'Clock.