§ 71. Mr. Malcolm MacMillanasked the Minister of Transport whether he will urge Highland local authorities to make demands for concessions in connection with road schemes from contractors and others before asking free labour concessions from the road-workers?
Captain HudsonIt is the practice of local authorities to invite competitive tenders for road works, and my right hon. Friend is not clear how an authority could properly ask a contractor to make concessions which are not included in his tender. If the hon. Member will let my right hon. Friend know precisely what he has in mind, he will be happy to consider it.
§ Mr. MacMillanIs the hon. and gallant Gentleman not aware that local authorities in the islands of Scotland have been demanding or expecting concessions from the road-workers in the form of free labour or reduction of wages, and does he not think it would be fairer to ask those who can best afford it to make concessions before asking the workers who are the poorest people concerned?
Captain HudsonIt would be difficult to deal with a complicated question like free labour by question and answer, but I will ask my right hon. Friend to consider that supplementary question.
§ Mr. MacMillanWill the hon. and gallant Gentleman remember that I am not advocating that concessions as such should be made by the contractors, but that they should be asked first, before asking for concessions from those less able to bear them?
§ 72. Mr. MacMillanasked the Minister of Transport the cost of road construction and reconstruction completed in each of the counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty up to the latest convenient date under the five-year plan of 100 per cent. grants from the Road Fund?
Captain HudsonThe cost of schemes completed by 30th September, 1938, was £21,476 in Inverness and £16,550 in Ross and Cromarty. The cost of work done by that date on all schemes, including those still in progress, was £208,137 in Inverness and £84,739 in Ross and Cromarty.
§ Mr. MacMillanIs the hon. and gallant Gentleman satisfied that good progress is being made with the five-year road plan, which was supposed to be started in 1935, in view of the fact that such a ridiculously small total sum has been spent up to date, when three of the five years have passed?
§ Mr. MacMillanDoes the hon. and gallant Gentleman suggest that this five-year scheme will be finished in the time estimated at this rate of spending?
§ 76. Mr. R. Gibsonasked the Minister of Transport what proportion of the cost of road schemes provisionally approved as at 30th September, 1938, and estimated at over £99,000,000, and of the £15,750,000 paid thereunder, had been allocated to and paid in respect of Scotland, respectively?
§ 82. Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas Mooreasked the Minister of Transport what proportion of £100,000,000 for the five-year road programme is to be spent in Scotland?
Captain HudsonUp to 30th September, 1938, schemes had been provisionally approved under the five-year programmes of highway authorities in Scotland of a total estimated cost of £13,272,000. Payments out of the Road Fund in respect of these schemes amounted at the date mentioned to £2,634,000.
§ Mr. GibsonHas the whole of that £13,000,000 been put out to contract, or is a part being paid to the local authorities?