§ Mr. Allan StewartI beg to move amendment No. 26, in page 119, line 38, leave out '12' and insert '7.62'.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 27 to 38.
§ Mr. StewartThese are technical amendments requested by British Rail.
§ Mr. CraigenThey are indeed technical, but they raise some interesting questions. Why are these amendments proposed now? What co-operation was there between the Scottish Office and British Rail? We have known about the proposed change from imperial to metric measure for some time, so we were not taken aback by that. From what I heard on the grapevine, it seemed to me that British Rail would face some considerable problems with its bridges and at one stage with the gradients, if the amendments were not accepted.
Why do we have these amendments now, months later and after the Bill has been through another place? This is not the first time that British Rail has faced problems with roads. I believe that it has just made several complaints to the Scottish Office about the draft provisional order to authorise Lothian regional council to construct and maintain the western relief road. I am glad to see the Secretary of State for Scotland here because if he had grasped the nettle about that road and instituted a public inquiry, instead of leaving it to the tortuous procedure of the parliamentary commissioners, a lot of time and money would have been saved in the Edinburgh area.
********************Audit*************** 917 I hope that the Minister will answer those points. The amendments are technical, but they raise some interesting questions about how the Bill has been prepared.
§ Mr. Allan StewartSection 41 of the Railway Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1845 presently defines separate minimum arch dimensions of railway bridges over turnpike roads, public carriage roads and private roads and the Bill proposes to amalgamate the turnpike and public carriage roads provisions into a "public road" minimum clearance for railway bridges. However, British Rail has recently drawn attention to the fact that the obsolete turnpike standards, instead of the smaller public carriage road dimensions to which BR operates, have been used in schedule 8. That is why the amendment comes so late.
If allowed to stand without these technical amendments, the amended section 41 of the 1845 Act could increase BR's costs when rebuilding existing bridges since they might have to be reconstructed with a larger arch for vehicle clearance.
As the hon. Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mr. Craigen) said, these are technical amendments. They were not spotted until recently but——
§ Mr. CraigenIf the Minister tells me that BR is now happy, I shall approve the amendments.
§ Mr. StewartI am glad to give the hon. Gentleman that assurance.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Amendments made:
§ No. 27, in page 119, line 39, leave out '4' and insert '3.66'.
§ No. 28, in page 119, line 41, leave out '6' and insert '4.57'.
§ No. 29, in page 119, line 42, leave out '4' and insert '3.05'.
§ No. 30, in page 119, line 47, leave out '4' and insert '3.66'.
§ No. 31, in page 120, line 1, leave out '3' and insert '2.74'.
§ No. 32, in page 120, line 2, leave out '5' and insert '4.27'.
§ No. 33, in page 120, line 4, leave out '30' and insert '20'.
§ No. 34, in page 120, line 9, leave out '11/2' and insert ' 1. 22'.
§ No. 35, in page 120, line 9, leave out '1' and insert '0. 91'.
§ No. 36, in page 120, line 13, leave out '12' and insert '7.62'.
§ No. 37, in page 120, line 13, leave out '4' and insert '3.66'.
§ No. 38, in page 120, line 15, leave out '30' and insert '20'.
§
No. 39, in page 184, line 30, at end insert—
'(42A) In section 134(4) (provisions as to regulations), for the words "or section" there shall be substituted the words ", 132A or". '.—[Mr. Allan Stewart.]