HC Deb 03 May 1955 vol 540 cc1495-6
21. Mr. Hannan

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will now ask the Technical Committee representing the Corporation of Glasgow, the British Transport Commission and the Scottish Home Department to consider and report how best the danger of accidents can be effectively removed from known sites on the Forth and Clyde Canal, including the Glasgow branch.

Mr. J. Stuart

The Technical Committee referred to was appointed to consider the particular problem of the Monkland Canal and it concluded that the only effective way of removing the danger of accidents was to fill in the waterway. This cannot, of course, be done where the use of a canal has not been discontinued. While, therefore, I sympathise with the hon. Member's anxieties, I do not think that any purpose would be served by setting up a further technical committee at this stage, more particularly as recommendations about the future of the Forth and Clyde Canal are made in the Report of the Board of Survey of Canals and Inland Waterways recently submitted to the British Transport Commission.

Mr. Hannan

Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that, as a result of the recommendations of the previous Report and the work carried out on the Monkland Canal, accidents were reduced? Does he realise that what is required is a committee to make suggestions of a similar temporary character in order to cut down the high death rate among children?

Mr. Stuart

I sympathise with the hon. Member but, as I am sure he will readily admit, it is a very different matter where a canal is in use, because we cannot fill in such a canal. We all know the great attraction that a canal and any water has for children, but we cannot fill in the Forth and Clyde Canal. The British Transport Commission has received a Report on this matter. I will consider the hon. Member's suggestion but at present I am not satisfied that any useful purpose would be served.