§ 16. Mr. Charles R. Morrisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is now in a position to make the designation order under Section 12 of the Caravan Sites Act, 1968, the application for which he has received from the Manchester City Council.
Mr. PageI cannot yet add to the reply given to the hon. Member on 21st November in answer to a similar Question.— [Vol. 846, c. 365.]
§ Mr. MorrisWhat possible justification is there for a delay of 14 months in making this designation order? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the ratepayers of Manchester have spent £31,500 on providing a caravan site under the 1968 Act, yet my constituents and those of my hon. Friends the Members for Manchester, Ardwick (Mr. Kaufman) and Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Marks) are still plagued with problems arising from the indiscriminate parking of caravans in close proximity to their homes?
Mr. PageManchester Corporation has fulfilled its statutory duty, but it is necessary to consider this over a wider area. The city has to provide only 15 sites. Counties have to provide for all gipsies resorting to their area, and it is important to ensure that when one squeezes the balloon in one place it does not burst in another.
§ Mr. KaufmanIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the urgency of the situation arises from the Blackwin Street area in my constituency where, over a period of months, the inhabitants have been terrorised, their houses robbed of lead, and they have had to put up with intolerably insanitary conditions on the slum clearance site adjacent? They cannot go on putting up with these conditions which are caused not by gipsies but by tinkers? The designating order must be granted with urgency.
Mr. PageThis must be considered over a wider area. We must see that the city is not decanting these people into the area of its neighbours.
§ Mr. MarksIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the noble Lord Lord Sandford promised early consideration after the debate on 14th November, and that in the meantime people living in my constituency are suffering a great deal from the fact that they are in proposed clearance areas and are also suffering threats, abuse and damage from these itinerants? Will he do something urgently about it?
Mr. PageConsultations are going on. I realise that there is a balance to be struck, but the solution is for all authorities to carry out their statutory duty and make the provision.