§ 1. Mr. Malcolm MacMillanasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that the Scottish Department of 2 Agriculture estate communities at Lochportan, Hoebeg and Cheesebay, Isle of North Uist, have been without means of access by land to the main road and the rest of the island; and whether he will take steps to provide a road for these settlers.
§ The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. T. Johnston)These crofting and fishing communities, I am informed, were constituted on the basis that access would be by sea, and two boatslips were provided for that purpose, together with some five miles of connecting paths. Normal main roads are not properly charges against Land Settlement Funds. If the county council, however, should decide to include the making of a road to these townships in any post-war programme, an application for a grant-in-aid would receive full consideration.
§ Mr. MacMillanDoes that mean that the Department still adhere to the principle that they can settle people and leave them without that access to the main islands by land, which they ought to have, by all civilised standards; and is the right hon. Gentleman aware that if this attitude is persisted in, the people will be driven to the last resort of evacuation, like the people of St. Kilda?
§ Mr. JohnstonAs my hon. Friend knows, these communities were settled some 20 years ago, by concurrence with the crofters themselves at that time, and I am informed that the condition was that access would be by sea alone. But the concluding portion of my answer stands.
§ Mr. MacMillanIs the implication of that reply, that in 20 years no progress has been made, and that in the next 20 years no progress is to be made?
§ Mr. JohnstonNo, Sir; I have already informed my hon. Friend in writing, and I repeat it now, that if the county council care to submit an application for a grant-in-aid, it will receive consideration.