HC Deb 19 April 1961 vol 638 cc1137-9
14. Mr. J. Wells

asked the Minister of Transport if, in view of recent accidents on electrified railway lines, he will introduce legislation to alter the statutory specification of railway fencing.

35. Mr. P. Wells

asked the Minister of Transport if, in the interests of saving the lives of children and livestock, he will introduce legislation to enforce the provision of protective fencing where electrified railways pass through agricultural holdings.

Mr. Marples

I consider that the law as it stands is adequate. The British Transport Commission has to obtain my approval before any line is opened for electric traction and my Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways approves, on my behalf, the type of fencing to be used.

Mr. J. Wells

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, apart from the case of the small boy recently killed on the electric line in my constituency, there have been accidents to domestic and agricultural animals in recent months and the National Farmers' Union is very worried at the apparently complacent attitude of the British Transport Commission to this matter?

Mr. Marples

I have not myself heard from the National Farmers' Union, but I will get in touch and ask in what way it is particularly disturbed. The 9-year-old boy, a constitutent of my hon. Friend, met his death in an extraordinary place. He had been playing with other boys in some woods and he got on to the railway line by climbing the very steep side of a disused and heavily over-grown quarry. No fencing had been provided at this place because the risk of trespass had been considered negligible. Even so, the British Transport Commission is now looking at that particular spot to see whether it was right and whether fencing should be provided.

Mr. P. Wells

Does the Minister realise that on the Southern Region line, since 1946, sixty-four children have lost their lives as a result of trespassing on the lines, an average of four a year? Soon we shall be entering the picking season for fruit, beans and hops, when hundreds of children will be brought into the fields and orchards adjacent to the railways. Will the Minister, therefore. bring the strongest pressure to bear on the British Transport Commission, if he cannot introduce legislation for the purpose, to put up adequate fencing to protect the lives of children? I ask him to protect the lives of children as well as of livestock.

Mr. Marples

Where there is considerable risk of trespass, especially by children, what is called an unclimbable chain link fence is erected. This type of fencing checks but, of course, cannot prevent very determined trespass. Chain link fencing is generally provided also where hop fields are close to the line, because severe trespass by children on holiday with their parents has been experienced. That is what normally happens where children are concerned. In the particular case referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone (Mr. J. Wells), the accident occurred at a virtually inaccessible place where, normally, one would not have expected a child to get on the line.