§ 32. Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the President of the Board of Trade why his regulations provide that a charge of £3 8s. should be made by British Overseas Airways Corporation for clearance and delivery to New Malden from Heathrow Airport of a small parcel worth a few shillings, particulars of which have been sent to him.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsWith the approval of the Board of Trade, common charges for clearing freight at Heathrow are agreed between the various airlines concerned. The costs are not, of course, proportional to the value or size of the consignments, and I have no evidence that the charges are not closely related to the overall costs. I have written to the right hon. Member about the specific case.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterWhile thanking the hon. Gentleman for his helpful personal intervention in this matter, may I ask whether he does not accept that it was ridiculous that a small parcel of this kind, which cost 5s. to send 11,000 miles from Sydney to Heathrow, should cost £3 8s. for the purpose of covering a distance of 10 miles between Heathrow and New Malden?
§ Mr. RobertsThe amount the right hon. Gentleman mentions is not in discharge of the cost of moving the parcel from Heathrow to New Malden it is in 1245 relation to the costs of clearance, customs, transit registry, and so on, at Heathrow. These costs can be very high for small-value parcels. I would have thought that the real centre of this problem is that anybody proposing to send a small-value parcel over that distance, or indeed any distance at all, should inquire first how best to send it in relation to its value. If in this case or similar cases this had been sent by normal post it would have got there almost as quickly and far more cheaply.