§ 20. Mr. R. J. Taylorasked the Home Secretary whether, in considering priorities in the issue of indoor shelters, regard will be had to areas so low-lying as to render the present Anderson shelters practically useless owing to flooding?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonThe first consideration in selecting areas must be vulnerability; but local authorities of those areas have been told that householders whose Anderson shelters are unusable may be regarded as eligible to apply for the new indoor shelter.
§ 28. Captain Cunningham-Reidasked the Home Secretary whether all large public shelters have been examined by Regional technical staffs with a view to scheduling them if the standard of protection can be secured, as recommended last November by Lord Horder's committee?
§ Mr. MorrisonI am informed that this examination has been substantially completed, but the shelters referred to in the recommendation are "self-chosen" shelters, and I am not in a position to say that there are no such shelters in existence which have escaped notice. This is one of the points which I am considering in connection with the proposed Defence Regulation to which I referred last week.
§ Captain Cunningham-ReidIf the examination referred to in my Question was in any particular instance unsatisfactory, was the shelter disallowed or was it permitted to continue?
§ Mr. MorrisonWhere a shelter is definitely unsatisfactory we do our best to close it, provided alternatives are available; but the public too have views about this matter. They are sometimes resourceful in finding for themselves shelters which are not always satisfactory. We are doing our best to deal with the problem.
§ Captain Cunningham-ReidIs it not a fact that if the instructions of the right hon. Gentleman's Ministry had been properly carried out, the serious disaster that occurred recently in a well-known railway station in the Metropolitan area, resulting in 220 casualties, might have been avoided?