HL Deb 17 July 1962 vol 242 cc537-9

3.17 p.m.

LORD DERWENT

My 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 what progress the official study group of the Ministry of Transport have made in their investigations of proposals for a fixed link across the Channel; Whether their deliberations include an exhaustive examination, from the technical and maritime aspects, of a bridge as well as a tunnel; and when the findings of the study group and its sub-committees will be published.]

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT (LORD CHESHAM)

My Lords, the study of proposals for a fixed cross Channel link is being carried out by a group of British and French officials. Work is well under way, but I cannot yet say when Governments will be able to make a statement: there are complex problems which must first be thoroughly worked out. The official study covers technical and maritime matters as well as questions of finance, economics, defence and international law. No decision has been reached about publication.

LORD DERWENT

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his Answer. Can he give an undertaking that the technical report will be published before any political decision is arrived at, so that Parliament will be in a position to know the facts when any scheme is brought forward for our consideration?

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, I am sorry that I cannot give my noble friend the positive undertaking that he seeks. The question will, in due course, be a matter for consultation between my right honourable friend the Minister of Transport and his French colleague. I am not therefore in a position to make any promise at the present time about the procedure that will be adopted.

LORD CONESFORD

My Lords, can my noble friend assure the House that, when they are considering the rival claims of tunnel and bridge, Her Majesty's Government will not overlook the advantages which this country derives from having neither?

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, I do not think I shall find very much difficulty in giving that assurance because I can also assure my noble friend that all aspects of this matter, including existing or possible future alternative methods of crossing the Channel, are also being taken into consideration.

VISCOUNT BRENTFORD

My Lords, will the noble Lord bear in mind on this question of publication of the technical report that it is far more important to those who are interested in the consideration of any rival claims of a link, for the reason that there can virtually be only one technical report. The problem is one of such vastness from many different points of view that other bodies are unable to investigate the matter thoroughly from a technical point of view, and, consequently, publication of the technical report will be of infinite value.

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, I will certainly keep that in mind, and I will convey my noble friend's words to my right honourable friend, who I have no doubt will bear that in mind when, in due course, he consults with his French colleague on this matter.

LORD KILLEARN

My Lords, may the House assume from the answers given by the noble Lord that no decision in principle has yet been made as to whether or not there should be a tunnel, a bridge or anything else?

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, the House may certainly assume that. In fact my right honourable friend said it in reply to a Question on July 4.

LORD MERRIVALE

My Lords, as at the moment a bridge linked by immersed tunnels is being built at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in America, might I ask my noble friend whether he would ask the official study group whether they could investigate the advantages or disadvantages of these two types of construction, for I believe that this link is to operate from Cape Charles to a point between Cape Henry and Norfolk, Virginia?

LORD CHESHAM

My Lords, I have said that the official joint study group are examining all aspects of technical construction, but my noble friend must bear in mind that it is not exactly the function of the study group to devise methods of doing this thing but to study the general implications as wall as the technicalities of the propositions that have been put forward.