§ 3.6 p.m.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government if they are now in a position to say whether the replacement for Covent Garden Market will be built on the Seven Dials Site, and if not, when and where the new market will be built.]
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (LORD ST. OSWALD)My Lords, as my noble predecessor said on April 16, in answer to a Question by the noble Earl, Lord Fortescue, the rebuilding of the Covent Garden Market is the responsibility of the Covent Garden Market Authority. The Authority are now carrying out a detailed study of the issues involved in selecting the best site for the new market. A firm of professional consultants is expected to report to the Authority by about the end of the year. No decision can be reached until the Authority have had an opportunity of considering this report.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that this firm of consultants, having been instructed to consider Covent Garden as London's biggest central market, has rejected that advice and is looking at perimeter sites? Is it not therefore the case that the rejection of precisely similar advice given in your Lordships' House has wasted a whole year and a great deal of money? Will the noble Lord urge his right honourable friend, through the usual channels, to ask the Authority to decide 720 quickly on one or more of those perimeter sites?
LORD ST. OSWALDMy Lords, the noble Lord has not put it quite accurately. We set up the Authority in order to seek the most suitable site. They are now deciding upon that site. We do not see, I am afraid, any reason to ask them to hurry. They are fully aware of the urgency in this matter and we leave it to them.
§ LORD MORRISON OF LAMBETHMy Lords, if it be the case—I do not know—that the advisers to the Authority recommend a site or sites (I should prefer more than one site) on the perimeter round about the County of London, on the edge of it, will that recommendation be excluded because of the view which the Government previously appeared to have—namely, that the market should remain in central London? Your Lordships will remember that I urged that there ought to be four mixed markets about the edge of the County of London, or something like that, so as to get rid of central area congestion, so that stuff could come to the perimeter and go away from the perimeter, East or West, North or South. Can the noble Lord say whether that question is now open?
LORD ST. OSWALDYes, my Lords. I think I can best say that by repeating the words used by my noble and learned friend Lord Kilmuir as Lord Chancellor on July 13, 1961, when he said [OFFICIAL REPORT, Vol. 233, col. 281]:
… it is not the intention of the Minister of Agriculture to withhold his consent to the promotion of a Private Bill in Parliament by the Authority, empowering it to build the market elsewhere …"—elsewhere, that is, than the Covent Garden area; and of course the attitude of the Government is still the same to-day.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, does the noble Lord think that about next January I shall have the pleasure of heaping coals of fire on his head?
LORD ST. OSWALDMy Lords, I cannot promise the noble Lord when he will be able to heap coals of fire upon my head.