§ 20. Mr. Grant-Ferrisasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will now give an assurance that all written evidence is now in the possession of the Bowes Committee on the future of the canal system.
§ Mr. WatkinsonWritten evidence is still expected from four bodies.
§ Mr. Grant-FerrisWill my right hon. Friend do everything he can to expedite the arrival of this written evidence, because the time is running on far too long? When it is available, will he ask the Committee to come to its conclusions as early as possible, especially in view of the fact that the British Transport Commission is to raise contentious matters in the form of a Private Bill and those matters could best be left until the Committee has reported?
§ Mr. WatkinsonI am quite at one with my hon. Friend in wanting to get this Committee its total evidence so that it can complete its work, and I will do my best to get it speeded up.
§ Mr. G. R. StraussIs it not extraordinary that nine months after the appointment of the Committee it has not yet got the written evidence and, presumably, it will want some oral evidence? Does this not show that our suggestion that the setting up of the Committee would mean one or two years' delay in 424 settling the urgent problem of the canals will prove to be true?
§ Mr. WatkinsonNot at all. It is no use having a Committee of this kind unless it takes the widest possible evidence. It is certainly not the fault of the Committee that some important national bodies, in spite of one or two applications, have not been able to give it what it asked for.
§ Mr. StraussWe suggested that the fault was in setting up a Committee when all the facts were well known and the whole problem could have been dealt with a year ago.
§ Mr. WatkinsonIt was not so. The facts were not known, and that was the purpose of setting up the Bowes Committee.