§ Mr. Raphael Tuck: (Watford)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I wish to present a petition. It is signed on behalf of the Garston and District Ratepayers Association, an association of more than 1,000 people in Garston, one of the Watford wards, by the acting chairman, Mr. Frederick Walter Rance. The Garston and other associations are deeply concerned at the Government's inequitable treatment of Hertfordshire as compared with other local authorities.
This petition is so beautiful that I think it should be framed rather than put into the Petition Box. It is in Gothic script and copperplate handwriting, and it reads as follows:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the Garston and District Ratepayers Association sheweth that Parliament has since 1973 ordered the Rate Support Grant be so distributed as to have the effect that Hertfordshire County Council has lost grant to the extent of £30 million, the equivalent eighteen pence in the pound. Hertfordshire domestic ratepayers are now second only to Surrey in the burden they carry, despite severe economies in the services provided.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House do require the Secretary of State in submitting his Rate Support Grant Order for the financial year 1978–79 to consider the inequitable burden placed upon the Hertfordshire ratepayers and so frame the Order that further losses of grant do not occur and the burden now suffered by Hertfordshire ratepayers be alleviated.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table
§ Mr. Geoffrey Dodsworth (Hertfordshire, South-West)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I would like to present a petition on behalf of the 1014 Croxley Green Residents and Ratepayers Association in connection with the inequitable distribution of the rate support grant for the county of Hertfordshire. The House will be familiar with the terms of a petition of this nature, and with your permission, Mr. Speaker, I will present it to you.
The petition is signed by the chairman of the association, Mr. R. D. Dunderdale, on behalf of the Croxley Green Residents and Ratepayers Association.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Mr. Ian Stewart (Hitchin)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and by leave of the House, I wish to present a petition from the Hitchin and District Ratepayers and Residents Association regarding the inequitable distribution of the rate support grant in so far as it affects Hertfordshire. This petition is addressed to the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled and is in similar terms to those already presented. It is signed by the chairman, Councillor Ken Logan, and others, and it concludes :
§ And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Sir Derek Walker-Smith (HertfordShire, East)I beg to present a petition on behalf of the Bishop's Stortford Ratepayers Association, which is beautifully printed and artistically illustrated. It is signed on the Association's behalf by its chairman. It sets out the detrimental position of Hertfordshire in the context of the rate support grant, and ends with a prayer that the burden now suffered by Hertfordshire ratepayers be alleviated.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Mr. Victor Goodhew (St. Albans)With your permission Mr. Speaker, and with the leave of the House, I beg to present a petition on behalf of the chairman and members of the Harpenden and District Ratepayers Association dealing with the same matters as have been set out by other petitioners and read by other hon. Members. I do not think that I need read the whole of the text, which 1015 is beautifully written as in the other cases. I merely say that the prayer is that the burden now suffered by Hertfordshire ratepayers be alleviated.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.