§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 3a.—(The Earl of Donoughmore.)
EARL RUSSELLMy Lords, I presided over the Committee which considered this Bill, and I ought perhaps to have made a statement in giving the decision of the Committee. Perhaps your Lordships will pardon me if I intervene for one moment to make that statement now. When I explain the circumstances your Lordships will see the reason. The contested point of this Bill was the allowance of a new level crossing across a main road near Hayes in Middlesex, and your Lordships will understand that the Committee not unnaturally viewed that proposal with very considerable alarm and apprehension. The Middlesex County Council most properly opposed it strenuously, but the railway company made out such an overwhelming case that in the end the Committee felt bound to grant it. Your Lordships will be relieved to hear that the level crossing is merely a siding of the railway, 284 and will only be used for five minutes twice a day, in the morning and afternoon; but it was made clear to the Committee that there was no other practical method of access to these works, and it was stated by the representative of the Minister of Transport that in his view the actual obstruction to the highway would be less by allowing this siding than by the present road cartage of these goods. In the circumstances the Committee felt bound to allow the crossing. The reason I intervene is that we should desire it to be clearly understood and put upon record that in no sense must it be taken as a precedent for the establishment of new level crossings.
THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE)My Lords, I am very glad that the noble Earl has drawn attention to this point. If I may say so, it puts me under a further debt of obligation to him for the care that he gives to these matters.
§ On Question, Bill read 3a, with the Amendments, and passed, and returned to the Commons.