§ 41. Mr. J. Griffithsasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he is aware that the Carmarthen County Education Committee still persist in levying a differential education rate, and that such a rate bears most heavily upon the depressed areas in the county, involving an additional rate burden of 2s. and over, and also retards the provision of urgently needed new school buildings in several areas; and whether he will make representations to the authority to levy a uniform education rate throughout the county?
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education (Mr. Kenneth Lindsay)My Noble Friend is aware that it has been the practice of the Carmarthenshire County Council to charge capital expenditure incurred by them in respect of the provision and improvement of elementary and secondary schools on the parishes served by the schools, and that this practice has retarded educational developments in several areas. He understands, however, that the county council have recently decided to discontinue differential rating for higher education as from 1st April, 1939, and he hopes that they will, in the near future, extend this decision to elementary education also. The council are fully aware of the difficulties which arise under the existing arrangements, as well as of the views of the board, and my Noble Friend does not think that it should be necessary for him to make any representations to them in the matter now.