HC Deb 11 March 1952 vol 497 cc1237-8
9. Mr. W. Nally

asked the Minister of Works if he will cause an investigation to be made into the circumstances under which a licence or licences were approved enabling a garage and other buildings, valued at £7,000, to be built upon a site in Moston Lane, Blackley, Manchester.

Mr. Eccles

Two licences, for £160 and £1,475 respectively, were issued by my Department last year for work at this site. The smaller licence was for the installation of petrol pumps. The larger licence was for the erection of a garage and was granted on the sponsorship of the Ministry of Transport.

Mr. Nally

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that throughout the whole of this suburb there is a justifiable belief, held irrespective of party politics, that, although the original transaction was during the time of the right hon. Gentleman's predecessor, from beginning to end this has been a highly dubious transaction which needs further investigation? If I provide the right hon. Gentleman with further information, will he take steps to see that trained investigating officers of his Department go into the whole of the unhappy circumstances?

Mr. Eccles

I am not aware of that. In any case, the responsibility lies with the Ministry of Transport, who said that the garage was necessary, and I have every reason to believe that it was.

Mr. Eric Johnson

Will my right hon. Friend also be prepared to receive figures, with which I will furnish him, to show that the amount of £7,000 is merely a product of the fertile imagination of the hon. Member for Bilston (Mr. Nally)?

Mr. Nally

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that is exactly the point that we are anxious to establish? Is he aware that one of the leading Tory elders in Blackley, who is well known to the hon. Gentleman, personally assures me that the work could not possibly have been done under £7,000?