HC Deb 18 March 1953 vol 513 cc6-7
23. Mr. Grimond

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General how far the damage done in Northern Scotland by the recent gale has been repaired; if he will give some estimate of what cost and work this has involved; and how far the provision of new telephone facilities will be delayed.

Mr. Gammans

Temporary repairs were completed by 28th February and most of the work of permanent repair should be completed by the end of May. The estimated cost of restoration work in Northern Scotland is about £135,000, including the equivalent of 220 men's time for six months. The cost for Scotland as a whole is £170,000. Assistance from other parts of the country was provided on a considerable scale, but even with this, the repair of the storm damage will put back the planned programme of development by four or five months. While precise figures cannot yet be given, a substantial reduction, probably amounting to some thousands, will be unavoidable in the number of non-priority applications that can be met this year.

Mr. Grimond

Is the Assistant Postmaster-General aware that people in the North of Scotland are very grateful to his Department and its workmen for the work they did, and will he do his best to see that the future programme, which will inevitably be held up—we appreciate that—will be held up as little as possible through lack of materials?

Mr. Gammans

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for what he has said about the Post Office staff, and I know that they will appreciate it. I shall certainly do my best to reduce as far as possible the devastating effects on the Post office programme of the damage done by the storm.

Mr. Ness Edwards

Would the hon. Gentleman take this opportunity of paying a compliment to the staff, who made very special efforts to remedy all these defects, both in England and Scotland?

Mr. Gammans

I thought I had stressed that when I was answering the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond). If I have not done so, I will willingly do so now. What struck me so much about this disaster was that in England and also in Scotland the Post Office staff did not have to be sent for— they turned up.