FORTH ROAD BRIDGE PROVISIONAL ORDER CONFIRMATION BILL. (Hansard, 23 April 1947)

§ LORD MORRISON
My Lords, I beg to move that this Report be now received.

VISCOUNT ELIBANK
My Lords, the noble Lord who has moved this Report has given us no information at all about the Bill. I had hoped that he would have indicated to your Lordships how this matter came to be on the Order Paper, and a little about it. I hope that when I have sat down he will make good that omission, but before he does so I would like to say that I am particularly pleased to see this Confirmation Bill before your Lordships' House to-day. In Scotland there are quite a number of us who have been urging this project for a number of years. As one from the South of Scotland who felt (again with many others) that a road bridge was particularly required over the Forth, I have taken part in a good many conferences, and in debates in your Lordships' House, urging this matter forward.
I always felt it was absolutely wrong, that the capital of Scotland should be separated from part of the country by water, and that the only available crossing should be by ferry. For that reason alone I have always felt that the two shores ought to be joined. But the matter goes much further than that. It affects the whole of the traffic from south to north, and from north to south, in a straight line. If one is going north it is particularly irksome to have to go round by Stirling; on the other hand, if one wants to go through Edinburgh—which is quite natural, because many people, certainly those coming from the south, want to visit the capital before going on—one has to wait at South Queensferry for a ferry. In some cases you perhaps see it starting just as you arrive, and there is a wait for half an hour or more until another comes. The weather is sometimes very inclement in the north, as most people know, and the ferry is not always a comfortable form of crossing.
Under this Bill, I understand that the time will come—and I hope very shortly—when all that will be changed; but I am not quite clear as to how soon that will be. For instance, in the preamble to the Schedule it states: And whereas the Minister of Transport has agreed to make from the Road Fund at such time as Parliament decides to approve the necessary financial provision in the grant in aid of the Road Fund a grant of seventy-five per centum of the approved expenditure incurred on the construction of such a bridge and work …. 53 It is very pleasing to know that the Minister of Transport is satisfied that this is a good project. It appears from this preamble that he is also satisfied that it is a project to which the Road Fund may properly contribute 75 per cent. What I should like to know from the noble Lord is how soon that 75 per cent. is to, be contributed. How soon will this project come into being? That is a very important point, especially as to-day in Scotland there is some unemployment, and how far that unemployment will increase nobody knows. In any case, as this project is bound to take two or three years to complete, it shoud be started as soon as possible.
I do not wish to detain the House very long, but there are two or three other points connected with the Schedule to which I should like to refer. I am glad to see that it has been agreed that tolls should be applied towards helping to pay the cost of maintenance of the bridge. There was great opposition at one time to making it a bridge with tolls, and I think that was one of the reasons why it was held up. Tolls have now been agreed to, and although the natural inclination is to dislike tolls, at the same time the fact that they have been agreed to shows that Edinburgh and the adjoining councils want this bridge.
There is another point, and that is that a Joint Forth Bridge Board is to be appointed. That Board will consist of representatives of Edinburgh and the neighbouring councils, but the important point in connexion with the Board is that it will be self-administering. It will administer the affairs of the Forth Road Bridge, and whilst it will report to the councils, they will be unable to control the decisions of the Board. It is something like the Clyde Navigation Board. With all the various measures of nationalization which are being passed at the present moment, in which everything is centred in the Minister or in the official centre, it is pleasing to find in a Bill that we may still sometimes be permitted to set up boards of the old public utility nature, and that the administration of this bridge has not been placed with the council; themselves. Then there is a final point. I see that £150,000 has been provided for compensation to the L.N.E.R. I think that is very fair. For a long time they opposed this new Forth Bridge because they felt, naturally, that their 54 receipts from the old Forth Bridge would be affected. Therefore, it has been an act of great wisdom to compensate the L.N.E.R. for such losses as they might incur by this new bridge. With those few words, I wish to welcome this measure and to express the hope that the money for it will soon be forthcoming, and that it will be pressed forward as soon as possible.

§ EARL HOWE
My Lords, I hope I shall be forgiven for rising to speak, but I will not detain your Lordships more than a few seconds. The noble Viscount who has just spoken welcomed the system of tolls on this bridge. and it is quite obvious that a number of Sassenachs will have to pay money for using the bridge. But that is not the purpose of my remarks. The point about which I am anxious concerns the Board which is to be set up for administering the bridge. Will the Minister be able to ensure that there will be a representative of road interests on that Board, either from the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, the R.A.C., or some other road interest? I hope he will ensure that a representative of road interests will be included on the Board.

§ LORD MORRISON
I should apologize for not having made a speech in moving Consideration of this on Report. On the other hand. I rather think it is just as well I did not, because it has given your Lordships an opportunity of hearing a speech by the noble Viscount, Lord Elibank, who knows se much more on this subject than I can ever hope to know. Most people, even those with only a slight association with Scotland, know the part he has played and his great activity in connexion with this subject. This measure is more in the nature of private legislation, for it is not a Government Bill, nor is it a Government Order. Several local authorities, headed by the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh, promoted this scheme, and the only part the Government have played in it is that they have promised to contribute 75 per cent. of the preliminary costs. The noble Viscount raised a question, which I am afraid I cannot answer, as to the speed with which the bridge will be built. All I can say is that the pressure of public opinion in Scotland will largely determine how quickly it can be started. The reason I 55 did not make a speech when introducing this measure was not that I had no information available. I have a few items here, although out of consideration for the feelings of your Lordships I will not go into the details of what is contained in all these folios; but all the answers are here. I will say, however, that the tolls to be set up under this Bill will be jointly owned by a number of corporations' situated in the neighbourhood.