HC Deb 26 July 1946 vol 426 cc477-84

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn." —[Mr. R. J. Taylor.]

4.9 p.m.

Mr. Skeffington-Lodge (Bedford)

I never grudged time less than that given to the vote on the Health Bill this afternoon out of the brief time which is available for me to draw attention to this subject, but unfortunately, in the limited time at my disposal, I can only touch on the fringe of the problem which I want to raise, the preservation of our national heritage, the natural beauty of the countryside. It is one in which I am specially interested and one about which I know I can look for sympathy and support from the right hon. Gentleman the Minister of Town and Country Planning, who has kindly come along to reply to me this afternoon.

I want to strengthen his hands in dealing with other Government Departments and I want to do that rather than ask him a lot of questions. There is in my judgment a grave lack of coordination between the Government Departments in dealing with this amenity question, and I do urge the Minister to stand up to those whose claim to be heard should not take precedence over his own. It is no exaggeration, I think, to say that the fight to preserve the national amenities of this beautiful country of ours is a fight to preserve its very soul. Tragic indeed would it be if the splendid prospect of improving the material conditions of our people was tarnished by the means adopted to bring that about. If for example at the end of the long road to the establishment of social security there is nothing but a desert left to enjoy, this Government will indeed have failed. The whole programme, I think, which is in hand now, is not so much an end in itself as it is a means to the end of enabling our people to live and enjoy fuller and better lives in that atmosphere of pleasantness and beauty which Britain so singularly provides for us. To keep sacrosanct that beauty is a trust which we hold not only for the people of today but for generations yet unborn. If we dishonour it, we shall, in the long run, lower and not enhance our country's greatness.

Natural beauty is one of the fundamental features of the universe. It may be likened, I think, to a ladder set up from earth to Heaven in climbing which, men and women can glimpse the Divine. The present disastrous tendency in our national life to brush aside all aesthetic considerations where purely economic factors are involved is, I think, wholly deplorable. I admit that our senses have been blunted by the shocking experiences from which we have just emerged in the war years, and the result of that has been that a great many people are blinded to beauty. How, I ask, can they recover their sight? The answer, I believe, is by contact and intercourse with beautiful things. The holiday season is just beginning in all its fulness, when countless thousands from our industrial cities will seek regeneration both of spirit and of mind in the charm of our country and by our coast. What will they find there? From one end of our lovely island to the other they will be met by a mass of prohibitions, deprivations and "Don'ts."

I want to deal with three aspects of the matter. Firstly, thousands of footpaths and byways and ancient rights of way are completely closed to our people. Would to God that the Pennine Way was already an established fact. Secondly, huge tracts of glorious scenery are still requisitioned by the Service Departments and that despite promises given in this House that their release would be speeded up. All three branches of the Armed Forces are involved in this, and the material damage and destruction which are being inflicted by manoeuvres which are being carried out in these days of peace, is quite alarming and in some cases can never be put right. The third matter I want to touch on is that connected with the fact that sporting and landowning interests in many parts of the country are still excluding ramblers and walkers from their God-given heritage.

Mr. Vane (Westmorland)

Not in the Lake District.

Mr. Skeffington-Lodge

Yes, to some degree and if I had time I could provide the House with innumerable examples of what I mean under all three of these headings. As far as the blocking and stoppage of rights of way is concerned, I have had many protests from my own constituency of Bedford. For myself, I would like to see a Footpaths Commission established on the lines recommended in the Scott Report, with full power to settle disputed cases, and to record all existing rights of way.

Earl Winterton (Horsham)

As president of a walkers' society, may I ask the hon. Gentleman whether he will bring out the fact that many local authorities, and some Government Departments, take no steps to protect rights of way?

Mr. Skeffington-Lodge

I thank the noble Lord for that interjection. It is a fact that local authorities are very often impervious to pressure in these matters and blind to what is going on on their own doorsteps. As far as tracts of country held by the Service Departments are concerned, many are in or bordering upon the proposed National Park areas. I am sorry to tell the House that I have recently heard of even more tracts of country being requisitioned. The situation in the Isle of Purbeck is a shocking example of vandalism in many parts of this choice district and shows also an apparent disregard of the claims of agriculture and the local inhabitants. At the other end of the country, in lovely Northumberland, the Redesdale artillery range is barring walkers from big stretches of the Cheviots. You, Mr. Speaker, yourself know that part of the country very well, I am glad to think. Personally, I feel that a drastic revision of policy regarding the use of these islands for battle training is already much overdue. Why cannot we use Germany for this purpose, or, by arrangement, parts of our Dominions, especially Canada?

I was shocked this week to hear that the War Office contemplate taking over Hazeley Heath in Hampshire as a permanent training ground for tanks. This will simply mean that a lovely common with public access and grazing rights will be ruined, and an eyesore in that part of England will be established. Then, as far as giving the public the right to walk on their native hills is concerned, the Access to Mountains Act of 1939 is, in my judgment, practically useless. It was so mutilated by the landowning and sporting interests in the House at the time it was passed as to make it almost as much disliked by ramblers as the Trade Disputes Act, 1927, was disliked by trade unionists. Perhaps the most pressing thing to which the Government should give their attention is the speedy appoint- ment of a National Parks Commission. I hope that this may be the outcome of the report of the Hobhouse Committee on National Parks which I believe is shortly due to be published.

The Dower Report schedules 10 National Parks as a start, and the Lake District is probably my favourite among these. It is undoubtedly the best mountain sanctuary of the British people. About it I could raise many questions if I had the time, but all I would say to the Minister is that he should use his influence to prevent any further desecration of this area. I mention this because I think it is important. Progress towards restoring prewar traffic conditions in the Lake District has gone much too far. I advocate that through charabancs should be directed away from, not only the Lake District, but all National Park areas. It is absurd that through charabancs between Glasgow and Blackpool should be routed through Keswick and Winder-mere, thereby creating needless congestion and nuisance for ordinary walkers and motorists. I deplore the threat to Ennerdale Lake. And only this morning I saw in "The Times" that the Cumberland County Council contemplates the construction of a large-scale reservoir in Mosedale, near Loweswater.

Surely a national policy in land planning should prevail in impounding water, and we should not have the constant irritation of finding the problem dealt with in penny numbers, as has been the case up to the present time. Alternatives are not being considered as they should be. Nobody wants to interfere with industrial development, but it is obvious that short-term gains at the expense of permanent national injury are not worth having. If the alternatives are more expensive, as in many cases they are, let some of the £50 million which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has put on one side, out of the kindness of his heart, for making the country more accessible to its people, be used for paying the extra which is involved in operating the alternatives.

I could stress many features of other National Parks that are causing me great concern. In the Peak . District, for example, there is widespread quarrying.. In parts of Wales and elsewhere, electricity generating stations look like being established without due consideration and thought. Generally, irresponsible timber felling is going on throughout the country. Perhaps the most absurd arrangement of all is that the Board of Trade has been entrusted with the disposal of wartime camps. I would ask the Minister to look into this matter. He should be consulted before camps of this kind are permanently dealt with, as they may well be if the Board of Trade is left to operate the scheme all on its own. In particular I would draw his attention to the need for removing the camp on Ullswater.

I have already mentioned that many local authorities have failed to realise that the influence of environment upon our national character is profound, and that the experience of Nature goes deep. I hope that the Minister, in the few minutes, which I am afraid is all I have been able to leave him, will give me an assurance not only that he is aware of these facts but that he will strive for better coordination among Government Departments in dealing with questions of amenity. Where he fails to bring this about I ask him to stand firm in these matters against all comers, for the cause in which both he and I believe.

4.23 p.m.

The Minister of Town and Country Planning (Mr. Silkin)

I am very much obliged to my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeffington-Lodge) for raising this very interesting topic, although he has left me very little time to deal with the vast field which he has opened before us. Let me say at once that I have a great deal of sympathy for, and a large measure of agreement with, almost everything he has said. I do not agree that there is lack of coordination in His Majesty's Government on these matters. I am always happy to have my hand strengthened, never a bad thing, but I do not think I am particularly in need of it in this respect. I should like to assure him, as perhaps that is the most useful thing I can do in the time at my disposal, that there is adequate machinery, in our view, for reconciling conflicting claims to the use of land. My hon. Friend must recognise that many claims to the use of land are conflicting. While it is true that man cannot live by bread alone, it is equally true that he cannot live by amenity alone. It is the business of my Ministry very frequently to reconcile conflicting claims, such as those of agriculture, the need for electricity stations, industrial development, housing and a variety of other things. All that one can do is to have regard to the need for amenity. It is unfortunate that amenity cannot win every time. I wish it could. I wish it were possible, but this is a very small island. We have to face that fact.

Having said that, I would like to assure my hon. Friend that the claims of amenity are fully realised in my Department, and wherever possible the claim is recognised. He dealt at some length with the use of land by the Service Departments. There is, in fact, an Inter-Departmental Committee which has been established under the chairmanship of an official of my Department which considers the claims of Service Departments not only to the use of existing land but also for additional land. These claims are carefully considered in relation to all other claims that might arise in respect of the land. As a result of inter-Departmental discussion, a large amount of land has been surrendered. The Isle of Purbeck has been quoted. A great deal of land in the Isle of Purbeck has been restored to the public.

We have to face the fact that in future the size of the Services will be greater than it was before the war, and, with the development of modern armaments, that must give rise to greater and greater need for land. It is all very well to suggest that we should go to Germany for our military exercises—that is a matter which is beyond my personal control—or go to the Dominions; we should have to get the consent of the Dominions for that. We must face the fact that there will be greater claims upon the use of land in this country for military purposes if we are to maintain the increased Forces which most hon. Members will agree are necessary. My business and the business of this Inter-Departmental Committee is to ensure that the right kind of land is used, that land is taken in the right place, and that land which would be more appropriately used for agriculture or industry, or land of very high amenity value, is not taken if other land equally satisfactory or approximately equally satisfactory for the Service Departments is available.

As regards the particular matters which the hon. Member dealt with—footpaths, the question of access to wild country, national parks and so on—as he knows, all these matters are under active consideration. The Hobhouse Committee is actually considering all these questions, and I hope to get their report some time in the autumn. This report will need legislation for its implementation, and I hope it may be possible to find time during the life of the present Parliament to deal with these various amenity matters. In the meantime, town planning control can be very largely effective in preserving the use of land for the purposes which my hon. Friend has in mind. It is not, I am afraid, effective for securing new land for that purpose, and that must wait for legislation. But my Department is fully alive to all the matters he has raised, and wherever possible we endeavour to secure and preserve the use of footpaths and so on for their existing purpose. The hon. Member referred to camps. It is not possible today for anybody to start up a camp without getting the approval of my Ministry. We endeavour to ensure that camps are not put up in places which are inappropriate. The hon. Member also raised the question of charabancs going through the Lake District. I would like the beauties of the Lake District to be appreciated by as many people as possible, and would hesitate to deprive anybody of getting even a fleeting view of the beauties of that area. Nevertheless, we must secure that they do not interfere with the legitimate rights of other people to enjoy beauty.

It being Half past Four o'Clock, Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.