§ LORD COLWYNMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government by what right the Metropolitan Police issued notices to house and flat occupiers in Chelsea warning them that during the period of the Chelsea Flower Show any vehicle left in the street would be liable to removal by the police.]
EARL BATHURSTMy Lords, under the powers conferred by Section 52 of the Metropolitan Police Act, 1839, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis directed that, for the duration of the Chelsea Flower Show, parking of vehicles should be prohibited in certain streets and permitted on one side only in certain other streets. Vehicles parked in contravention of these restrictions were liable to be removed from the streets by the police under powers conferred by the 4 Removal of Vehicles (England and Wales) Regulations, 1957. Notices giving warning of these arrangements were distributed in advance to residents and vehicle owners in the streets in which parking was to be prohibited. These same notices were also distributed by mistake in some of the streets in which parking on one side only was to be permitted, and in these cases the advice given was not altogether appropriate. The Commissioner very much regrets any inconvenience that may have been caused.
§ LORD COLWYNMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply, but there is one point I should like to bring up. He is entirely right in what he says—that certain streets have not got parking restrictions. Therefore, what we, as householders, assumed from this, was that we had to take our cars and park them elsewhere, and the Chelsea Flower Show cars came in their place. I should like to suggest—
§ SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS: Order, order!
§ LORD COLWYNMay I ask that Royal Avenue, which I believe is Crown property, should during the Chelsea Flower Show take an average per day of 300 to 400 cars at a nominal charge of 2s. 6d. to 3s. each, which should go to the Royal Hospital? At the present moment Royal Avenue is used solely as a promenade for dogs—
§ SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS: Order, order!
§ LORD COLWYN—and not as a car park.
§ LORD AUCKLANDMy Lords, is the noble Earl aware that outside the Victoria Hospital for Children, of whose Committee I am a member, doctors were not allowed to park their cars, and one car which was parked there belonging to a doctor who was carrying out an operation was towed away? Could the noble Earl try to see his right honourable friend regarding legislation to enable bona fide doctors' cars to be parked outside their hospital?
EARL BATHURSTMy Lords, I was not aware of that, but I do not think that the noble Lord's question has any relationship to the Question asked by his noble friend.