30. Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether he will introduce legislation to amend Section 3 of the London Government Act, 1963, in order to re-establish Middlesex as a geographical county with boundaries as they existed before the creation of the Greater London Council, so as to keep the identity of the county as a part of the United Kingdom, as the area serving such organisations as the Middlesex Regiment and the Middlesex Cricket Club.
§ Mr. CrossmanNo, Sir. The London Government Act, 1963, and the Administration of Justice Act, 1964, make provision in Greater London for all the purposes for which elsewhere counties are statutorily established. The objects the hon. Member has in view do not require the statutory designation of Middlesex as a county.
Mr. Gresham CookeWill the right hon. Gentleman accept from me that there is a good deal of local feeling that Middlesex in some way should be retained as a geographical county, and when the next opportunity occurs of a Greater London Bill perhaps he will bear this in mind sympathetically and see whether geographical status can be given to the area?
§ Mr. CrossmanI am always looking back to see the virtues in the Bills of my predecessors, and I find that in a Bill of the previous Administration one of the five areas in Greater London for which a Commission of the Peace was established is still named the Middlesex area, and with that, I am sure, the hon. Gentleman should be content.