§ 27. Mr. GLEDHILLasked the Minister of Transport whether the regulations regarding speed limit are being applied to roads having street lighting which is not in use?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAMy hon. Friend will appreciate that I have no authority to interpret the law, but it appears to me that a road may be furnished with a 1119 system of street lighting even if the lamps are temporarily out of use.
§ Mr. GLEDHILLMay I ask my hon. Friend if he can advise drivers how they can recognise these lamp-posts in the darkness?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAIt is the duty of the highway authority adequately to signpost these areas.
§ Mr. THORNEWhy do you not light them up?
§ Mr. GLEDHILLThey are not doing it that is the trouble.
61. Mr. SI MMONDSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what areas the authorities have declined to adopt his suggestion that police officers in motor-cars when trapping motorists who may exceed 30miles per hour in built-up areas shall wear plain clothes
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir John Gilmour)I have made no such suggestion. It is of course open to the police to patrol in plain clothes whether on foot or in vehicles, and it is for individual chief officers of police to determine in their discretion whether or not police in plain clothes should be employed for the purpose of detecting breaches of the speed limit provisions. At a conference of chief constables held on the 20thFebruary last, the question of the method of enforcing the speed limit was discussed, and the general feeling of the conference was in favour of the use of plain clothes for this purpose, but I regret that I am not in a position to give details of the methods adopted in the different areas.
Mr. SI MMONDSCan the right hon. Gentleman say whether, in view of the poisonous atmosphere which these methods are creating—
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member can not use such epithets in the House.