§ 2.40 p.m.
§ LORD STONHAMMy 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 will be the capital cost of the provision of new roads and improvements to existing roads, which will be necessary for the safe transit of the additional public service road vehicles and goods vehicles which will be using the roads, if the recommendations in the report The Reshaping of British Railways are fully implemented.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT (LORD CHESHAM)My Lords, the Ministry of Transport's divisional road engineers are considering what improvements to roads may be necessary if the Railways Board's full proposals are put into effect. Not until that is done will it be possible to make a first tentative estimate of the possible capital cost.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, I am most grateful for that Answer. May I then ask the noble Lord whether his right honourable friend will give an assurance that he will give no decision with regard to any branch line closure until the cost of necessary road improvements is known, so that they can be balanced against the prospective saving on the line closure?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, my right honourable friend has already said certain things to that effect.
LORD HAWKEMy Lords, is it not a fact that in certain parts of the country, notably Sussex and Suffolk, Wales and the North of England, the cost of road improvements will be so prohibitive as to make it quite impossible to withdraw railway services in favour of buses?
§ LORD CHESHAMThat is a matter to be ascertained and, as my right honourable friend has said, taken into consideration.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, will the noble Lord bear in mind that the Transport Users' Consultative Committees, to whom within two months proposals may be submitted, can judge on grounds of hardship only? In regard to one case in Dr. Beeching's Report on the saving by a line closure of £8,000, local people say that the road proposals will cost a quarter of a million pounds. They are the kinds of consideration which the T.U.C.C. cannot know of and they must be disclosed to the public first.
§ LORD CHESHAMThat is right. That, again, is the reason why my right honourable friend said that the final decision lay with him in the light of all such matters.