HC Deb 10 May 1939 vol 347 cc478-9
69. Mr. Richards

asked the Minister of Transport why his Department has been bringing pressure to bear on the Wrexham Borough Council as the town planning authority to withdraw its opposition to the removal of the licence of the Town Hall vaults to the Garden Village, Wrexham?

Captain Wallace

I am unable to agree with the hon. Member's interpretation of the correspondence between my Department and the Wrexham Town Council on the subject of the transfer of the licence from the Town Hall vaults. The correspondence indicated the relation of the transfer of the licence to the scheme for widening and improving Town Hill—a scheme in which both the town council and I, as highway authority for the Trunk Road, are interested. There was not, of course, and could not be, any interference with the council's exercise of their duties as town planning authority.

Mr. Richards

Did not the Ministry in the first instance bring pressure to bear on the Wrexham Town Council to widen the road at this point and to dispose of the old Town Hall against their wishes, and then, having bought the Town Hall and pulled it down, are not the Ministry now trying to recover some of the grant by making the council change one of their by-laws with regard to the removal of the licence?

Captain Wallace

From what I understand this is a thing they are not willing to do, and I have not the slightest intention of trying to influence the council's decision in the matter.