§ Mr. MikardoI have a third and last petition which is as follows:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble petition of UK Residents Sheweth:
that some of the activities of the London Docklands Development Corporation severely disadvantage many of the people living in the area administered by the Corporation, in that land which is urgently needed as the sites of homes to let at rents which those people can afford is instead being used for luxury housing;
that certain developments on the banks of the River Thames initiated by the Corporation have the effect of denying public access to that river and therefore to the practice of water sports and recreations;
that such developments, and others, are carried out without consultation with the people living in the area and therefore without adequate consideration being given to the environmental consequences of those developments;
that the arrangements covering the Enterprise Zone have the effect of causing the price of land within the Zone to escalate, so that it is only the landowners who benefit substantially from those arrangements;
that those arrangements also create significant inequalities and injustices between the operators of premises just outside the boundaries of the Zone and those within those boundaries;
that the Corporation is not providing support for local community service organisations commensurate with that formerly provided by the local authorities at whose expense the Corporation has been funded;
and that the Docklands Light Railway of which the Corporation is a joint sponsor, is being planned with unmanned stations that do not provide adequate safety and comfort for those who use them, and especially for older people.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray—
§ Mr. Patrick Cormack (Staffordshire, South)How many of them?
§ Mr. MikardoI have not counted them.
The petition continues:
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will demand that Her Majesty's Government will ensure that the London Docklands Development Corporation will not engage in any developments affecting the environment and other elements in the welfare of the people in its area without fully consulting in advance the community organisations representing those people; that it will return to the Council of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as much of the land compulsorily sequestrated to it as that Council needs as sites of homes to be let at rents which fall within the means of many people in the area who desperately need such homes; that it will increase by a reasonable amount each year its grants to local community service organisations; that it will safeguard and increase the facilities for public access to the banks of the River Thames; and that it will ensure that the plans for the Docklands Light Railway will provide for safe and comfortable manned stations.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
To lie upon the Table.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Before I call the next hon. Member to present a petition, perhaps it would be helpful if I were to remind the House of Standing Order No. 119, which states:
Every Member offering to present a petition to the House, not being a petition for a private bill, or relating to a private bill before the House, shall confine himself to a statement of the parties from whom it comes, the number of signatures attached to it, and the material allegations contained in it, and to reading the prayer of such a petition.That is what hon. Members should confine their remarks to.