INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT (STIRLINGSHIRE) (Hansard, 13 April 1962)

§ Mr. William Baxter (West Stirlingshire)
I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, and the House for giving me the opportunity of raising the question of employment in West Stirlingshire, which is a very important part of Scotland, stretching from Loch Lomond in the west to the Forth in the east.
In the West, there are two centres of population—Lennoxtown and Kilsyth. The Lennoxtown district has been designated under the Local Employment Act, but, up to the moment, has received no benefit from it. In that area, we have two small factories, one a nail works and the other a pulp container works, each employing approximately 150 people, including men and women. The lack of industry in the district necessitates very many of the people of Lennoxtown having to travel very considerable distances to their work. In Kilsyth, there are three small factories, one making coffin mountings, one a hosiery factory and the other making blackboards. In all, they employ 90 men and 160 women. Adjacent to Kilsyth is the area in East Dunbartonshire in which are the villages of Croy and Twechar. These two areas have no industries other than coal mining on which they are dependent. The other town which makes up the square, Kirkintilloch, is also designated under the Local Employment Act.
The population of the whole area is about 40,000 and yet the amount of industry is very small. The position in Kirkintilloch is much the same as in the other areas. Stirling County Council, Kirkintilloch Town Council and Kilsyth Town Council have been considering this problem seriously and have recommended to the Board of Trade that an industrial site should be established more or less in the centre of the area at Inchbelly Bridge. This industrial site, if properly developed by the Department in conjunction with the county council, would be a great boon to the area. The Board of Trade should give special consideration to this claim.
1744 Many of the people in Kilsyth are employed in the coal industry which in that area is gradually disappearing. The only colliery in that part of Stirlingshire is at Dumbreck and is near its end. At Twechar there is a pit which will come to the end of its life in about seven years or so, and there is a pit at Dullatoch which has a limited life. It is, therefore, appropriate that special consideration should be given to the establishment of an industrial area and the encouragement of industry to go to the area. If the Minister is not prepared to accept that suggestion, I am certain that Stirling County Council and the town of Kilsyth would be prepared to play their part in trying to provide sites and factory space at the lowest possible cost for any industrialist who wants to go to the area.
Passing from that corner of my constituency, we come to almost the centre of it, the Bonnybridge and Denny area. I have some figures for the employment situation in Bonnybridge. The situation in 1962 compared with 1952 is very bad. The Weir Brickworks, Castlecary, in 1952 employed 170 men, but now employs only 150 men. Steins Brickworks, Castlecary, employed 415 in 1952 and employs 315 today. Dyke Head, High Bonnybridge, employed 40 and employs nobody today. Steins, High Bonnybridge, employed 50 and still employs 50. The Silica Brick Company, High Bonnybridge, employed 250 and now employs 200. Dougall and Sons, High Bonnybridge, employed 220 and today employs 168. The Bonnybridge Brick Company employed 40 and does not employ any today. The British American Tobacco Company employed 400 and today employs nobody. The number of people employed in the Bonnybridge area in 1952 was 1,585 and today is 883, a reduction in the labour force of 702 or almost 50 per cent.
The same situation applies in the adjacent town of Denny, although the two must be regarded as one unit. The foundries in the Denny area have been passing through an extremely difficult time. Many men have been paid off and lost their jobs. Most of the men in the two areas are now working short time. Although some are still employed in these foundries it is not a very satisfactory state of affairs to feel that one's 1745 job is likely to be in jeopardy from day to day, but part-time work seems to be the only thing that these men can expect in the years ahead.
Those two centres of population have ample first-class sites, full of potential areas of development for any industry. In Bonnybridge, where the cigarette factory used to be, there is a factory which is now used merely for the storage of kitchen utensils. Not only is there a factory but there are ample sites. The area of Denny and Bonnybridge has many wonderful advantages from the industrialist's point of view. It is served by the main roads and rail arteries which pass through Scotland. All the main roads and railway system of Scotland pass through the Bonnybridge and Denny area. There are ample marshalling yards and the area is conveniently situated for the ports of Grangemouth and Glasgow. This is indeed the heart of Scotland. It has great potentialities from the industrialist's point of view. I ask with the greatest sincerity at my command that the Government and the various Departments should give serious consideration to direction of some industry to this area.
I draw attention to another important part of my constituency over to the east side of Scotland on the banks of River Forth. There are four areas there—Bannockburn, which most English hon. Members will remember by name, Cowie, Fallin and Plean. The population of those four villages, which are comparatively large villages, is entirely dependent on the coal mining industry. The Cowie pit employs approximately 400 men, and it is reckoned that its lifetime will be no more than three years. The Pirnhall Colliery employs 150 and its lifetime is not expected to exceed five years. The Plean Colliery, which employs 500 men, has a lifetime which cannot be expected to exceed seven years. The Fallin Colliery employs 550 men and its lifetime is very uncertain The Manor Powis Colliery employs 900 men. Its lifetime may be quite considerable if the power station recently opened on the River Forth at Kincardine continues to use the coal which it uses at present. Coal which is called hurst coal is used almost 100 per cent. by the power station, but there is a rumour and a definite possibility that owing to the 1746 high cost of coal the power station may go over to the use of oil. That would be a death blow to the mining industry of the area.
With the closing of the Glen Ochil mine, which employed a large number of men from this area many colliers will be out of work. In fact the hopes of the whole community are more or less dependent on whether or not the new pit opened by the National Coal Board at Airth will be completed Here is a pit which was started three or four years ago by the National Coal Board After spending about £800,000 upon the project it was brought to a close.
This pit was meant to go down to the best seam of coking coals in the country, which are bound to be of great advantage to the industrial well-being of Scotland. At the moment the coking coal which is used in the Carron iron-foundry in Falkirk and in the Colvilles steelworks in Lanarkshire this is imported from England. It would be the height of madness if the sinking of this pit were not recommenced in order to produce these important seams of coking coal in view of the possibility of the needs of new strip mills in Scotland.
Those four villages have been rebuilt by Stirling County Council, and practically 100 per cent. of the houses in these villages are owned by the Stirling County Council. New schools have been built, whole communities are dependent upon the coal industry, as there is no other industry there. The President of the Board of Trade should apply his mind to directing some light or even heavy industries to this very desirable area—an area with all the necessary lines of communications, just adjacent to the new port of Grangemouth.
I have spoken about three areas in my constituency. In each of those areas, people travel considerable distances to and from their work. Thousands of people from the Kilsyth district and other districts which I have mentioned go to Glasgow to work. Glasgow is designated under the Local Employment Act and a new industrial estate has been built at Hillington. Many people from my constituency travel to that industrial estate. Is it not stupid to incur the expense of time and cost of travelling, which sometimes exceeds 25s. a week in bus fares. That 25s. a week paid in bus 1747 fares is reckoned as part of the income for Income Tax, and the men have no expenses allowance for it. It seems to me to be the height of nonsense to continue this mad way of building factories in the City of Glasgow, expecting people from the outlying small villages and towns, such as I have mentioned, to go there.
In the constituency we have a first-class labour force. No one knows that better than I, because as a small man in the building industry I employ almost 300 men. I can speak of their quality and the quality of their work. They are excellent workpeople, and there could be no better. We have people in the Bonnybridge and Kilsyth areas who have always been accustomed to hard work, men who were reared in the moulding and fitting shops of the foundries—and yet their skill today is not being utilised to the full.
In addition, the womenfolk are the products of bygone generations of the old hand-loom weavers, women who with meticulous care and great exactitude could handle any problem which modern industry might bring. In addition, we have very many young people leaving school every year, and these young men and women are finding no outlet for their ability without travelling very far indeed to find a place. This is a calamity for the whole of West Stirlingshire, which has almost 100 per cent. of the houses owned and controlled by the local authority—small towns and small villages with pride in their place of residence.
Anyone who has had experience of being in a village and working in a village factory will know that there is a pride of production, a pride of operation, and a pride of possession. If the qualities were lost, it would be a great calamity to the well-being of Scotland. If the men were sent to big industrial areas, they would cease to have pride of production, pride of operation and pride of possession. The Local Employment Act as such was not designed in the best possible manner.
Many people who have never been to West Stirlingshire may get the impression that these areas, because I have mentioned pits, are unsightly and ugly places. This is far from true. The 1748 villages and towns which I have mentioned are delightful places with areas of pleasant residential accommodation. Even if people did not want to stay in those part of my area, there is an area of unsurpassed beauty right at the back of the Campsie Fells. There are beautiful residential towns going along in that area which contains the Kingdom of Kippen. I have the pleasure of representing a kingdom in its own right. Then there is Buchlyvie. There is also Balfron, which is a lovely place. Then there are Fintry, the Bridge of Allen, Drymen, Killearn, Strathblane and Strathendrick. These are beautiful areas for residential accommodation. We may talk about the beauty of jewellery or gems, but they are all but common clay as compared to that countryside with all its natural beauty and charm. There is nothing to be compared with it. Every step taken along the roads round about my constituency brings a new picture to the eye, a picture of great pleasure and harmony.
If industrialists think that by coming to Scotland, particularly this part of Scotland, they will leave behind something of great moment in the cities or towns of England, they fail to realise that we have everything. We have beauty galore. We have lovely drives and sceneries. There are schools of the highest possible order and universities just on our doorstep. We have sports of all descriptions, not only sports on the fields, but the pastime of fishing—salmon poaching, if they want it. All these sports are just on their doorstep. I cannot see why industrialists should hesitate to come to this area.
I have no desire to make my contribution on a political basis, because when I speak on an occasion like this I speak for the whole of my constituents in West Stirlingshire. They and I realise the difficulty that the Government are in. The Government cannot wave a magic wand and produce industries. Nevertheless, I must with all the sincerity at my command impress the problem upon the Government. West Stirlingshire cannot be looked upon as an isolated problem. There is a greater problem of Scotland as a nation.
At the close of my remarks, I want to make some suggestions to the Board of Trade. We require a national plan 1749 for Scotland, not merely a plan for West Stirlingshire. The plan should take the following course. I believe that a Scottish industrial development council should be established to help old and established industries, such as foundries whose products are no longer required. The council should help these industries financially and otherwise. The finance should be at a very low rate of interest, with proper government control. The council should be asked to encourage the setting up of new industries, even if it is wholly or partly financed by the Government, but special incentives should be written into the agreements to make them, if they are nationally owned industries, into real working businesses. That should not be beyond the wit of man.
Thirdly, the development council should have the resources to set up an encyclopaedia of world trade requirements. This should be kept up to date, with a personnel who would be able to help and encourage new industries so as to let them know what was required in various parts of the world. We have a great opportunity here. Our scientific development is unsurpassed but it is not correlated to the industrial development in our areas. I think the council should have some power to correlate the ideas of our scientists into a modern industry.
Fourthly, an import and export department should be established in Scotland under this council for the purpose of channelling the products of Scotland into the appropriate markets of the world. We are faced with a great problem, but it is imperative for the life of this nation that we should have an industry based upon the modern conception and with an export trade that would keep our economy well balanced.
Lastly, a scientific research department must be set up under the council such as I have indicated, to be closely associated with the universities and technical colleges of our country, to consider and think out new methods and new products in order to rejuvenate and expand the Scottish industry of the future.
If we do not do that, if we do not seek to inculcate into our industry, both old and new, a new conception, a new breadth of vision. I can only say that Scotland will indeed become a deserted 1750 country. That would be a great calamity because we have the greatest assets of any country in the world. These assets should be utilized to the full advantage for the benefit not only of Scotland and its people but also of the world as a whole.

§ Mr. Malcolm MacPherson (Stirling and Falkirk Burghs)
The Minister has only a few minutes in which to reply, so I shall confine myself to one sentence.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Stirlingshire (Mr. W. Baxter) and I can assure the Minister that the constituency which I represent, the three burghs of Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth, have the same desire to get from the Government the attention for which my hon. Friend has been pleading.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Niall Macpherson)
The hon. Member for West Stirlingshire (Mr. W. Baxter) has made a very eloquent plea this afternoon, starting with his own constituency and then moving to cover the whole of Scotland.
If I could start with the last part of his remarks, I would only say that I listened to them with the greatest of interest, but that while these proposals are, naturally, very much in people's minds at the moment, if the Scottish development council that he suggested were to be in any way effective it would need powers, and powers would need legislation, which means that I could not carry that matter very much further now. I think that the same remark would apply to an import and export council for Scotland, and, indeed, to a scientific research establishment.
Dealing with the hon. Member's own constituency, there are, of course, many industries there which are declining. There are those in which he says jobs are in jeopardy, as in the foundry and light castings industries. There are the uncertainties of the coal industry. I would say right away that my information from my right hon. Friend the Minister of Power about Airth is that the reason that pit was not proceeded with was that the Coal Board decided that it did not require the coal to meet demand at present.
1751 All these industries have been declining, it is true; but the fact is that, taking Kilsyth as an example, the unemployment rate there is remarkably small. It is under 2 per cent. As I think the hon. Member will be aware, the Board of Trade has powers to designate an area as a development district only where there exists or where there are expectations of a high, and persistently high, rate of unemployment.
So far as the surrounding area is concerned, just over the border is Cumbernauld, which is a developing area and is attracting industry. A little further down, in North Lanarkshire, there are 7,000 jobs in prospect. Although I quite agree that that means travel, a fact which is all too common all over Scotland in the more sparsely populated parts particularly, no doubt the developments in North Lanarkshire will tend to benefit the hon. Gentleman's area to some extent.
I do not know how far there is the habit of travelling to work in the eastern part of Stirlingshire. I know, of course, that the travelling to work areas are roughly divided into three in Stirlingshire. They are the Stirling-Alloa area, the Falkirk-Grangemouth—Bonnybridge area and, broadly speaking, the Kilsyth area, to which Cumbernauld, Kirkintilloch, and, more remotely, Glasgow are related. In the area as a whole there are good hopes of develop- 1752 ment. There is the new town of Cumbernauld. In the eastern part of the area, Grangemouth is attracting industry and is quite obviously a centre of growth.
Where we have a centre of growth of that description there is no doubt that industries tend to be drawn to the area as a whole. We have these two major centres of growth in Grangemouth and Cumbernauld. The hon. Gentleman suggested that there could be an industrial site at Inchbelly Bridge. I do not know whether that is in a development district. If it is not, we should have no powers to set up such a site.

§ Mr. Baxter
The reason we have chosen this area is that it would serve the district of Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth and Lennoxtown. It would serve the whole area.

§ Mr. Macpherson
To the extent that jobs are provided for areas of high and persistent unemployment at a factory outside a development district, that factory is eligible for assistance.