§ LORD AMULREEMy 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 whether, when considering the plans for the redevelopment of the Palace of Westminster/ Bridge Street area, they will give attention to the possibility of restoring to Old Palace Yard its character of a precinct by converting the existing road into an underpass.]
THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (EARL JELLICOE)My Lords, as I informed your Lordships last week, in reply to another Question, my right honourable friend the Minister of Public Building and Works is proposing to appoint a planning consultant to look at the various proposals which are under consideration for redevelopment in the Whitehall area. The consultant will be asked to confer with the planning authority and the highway authorities on road traffic arrangements in the whole area, including Old Palace Yard.
§ LORD AMULREEMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl for his reply. May I ask him one further question; namely, whether he has ever seen the picture which is hanging in the Liberal Whips' room on the Second Floor showing what the precinct was like before the main road was built on to the Embankment?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I am looking forward to the opportunity, which I am sure the noble Lord will extend to me, of doing so.
LORD REAMy Lords, may I ask the Minister whether the Government will 322 bear in mind a scheme which was proposed, I think, between ten and fifteen years ago by an authoritative body (I think the Architectural Association), which envisaged a precinct all the way from Parliament Square to Lambeth Bridge? As my noble friend's Question seems to bring this to the forefront and make it less impossible than we were told it was at the time, I should be grateful if they would bear that in mind with a view to having space, with no roads at all—only paving, grass, trees—all around the area of Henry VII Chapel, your Lordships' House and Palace Yard.
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I was not aware of the precise scheme, though I was aware that the Abercrombie Report proposed some very large precinct in this general area. But I will certainly ask my right honourable friend the Minister of Transport whether he will bring this sort of possibility to the attention of the London County Council when they are considering the longer-term road pattern for London.