§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £900,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March. 1947, for a grant in aid of the Road Fund; for other expenditure in connection with roads; for payments to local authorities in reimbursement of expenses incurred in the collection of motor vehicle duties, etc., and the registration of motor vehicles; and for other services.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. G. R. Strauss)In presenting this Supplementary Estimate I will again be brief in my explanation—[HON. MEMBERS: "Why?"]— and I shall be prepared to answer as well as I can any question which may be asked. When the original Estimate was prepared, the opening balance in the Road Fund was expected to be £824,000, but the actual balance proved to be only £198,000. It will be appreciated that much of the expenditure from the Road Fund does not depend on what the Minister does, but on what the local authorities' activities may be. There has been a greater expenditure than was expected on the maintenance of our roads, indeed very much larger—a higher expenditure on maintenance in respect of classified roads of about £2 million, and, in respect of trunk roads, of £2,350,000. The reason for that much greater expenditure on maintenance has been that the local authorities have found it impossible to use modem machines to a great extent and, moreover, a great effort has been made to make the road facilities in the Development Areas better than they were. Against that, there has been less expenditure on improvement schemes, but the net result has been a total increase of grants in aid under the Finance Act from the Road Fund of £2,610,000. That is a much higher expenditure on maintenance and a considerably lesser expenditure on improvements compared with what had been anticipated.
There is one other item here of £200,000 in respect of payments to local authorities for reimbursement to them of their expenses for the issue of Road Vehicle Licences, etc. The demand for licences was rather bigger than we anticipated, but the really important thing here is that the salaries of the local authorities' servants have risen substantially in accordance with various agreements made between the local authorities and the various councils and associations concerned. In this respect we are liable to meet these expenses, and that accounts for the £200,000 under item "C."
§
Resolved:
That a Supplementary Sum, not exceeding £900,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the
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31st day of March, 1947, for a grant in aid of the Road Fund; for other expenditure in connection with roads; for payments to local authorities in reimbursement of expenses incurred in the collection of motor vehicle duties, etc., and the registration of motor vehicles; and for other services.