§ 3.5 p.m.
VISCOUNT ST. DAVIDSMy 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 whether they will ask the British Waterways Board to stop all sales of land which may prejudice future decisions to re-open waterways until the major policies now being prepared are announced.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT (LORD LINDGREN)My Lords, the Board are, of course, aware of the need to avoid taking any action which may prejudice future decisions on waterways policy. The merits of individual cases, however, must be a matter for the Board's judgment.
VISCOUNT ST. DAVIDSMy Lords, while thanking my noble friend for that Answer, and quickly assuring him that I am not going on bombarding him with questions about water for forty days after St. Swithin's Day, may I ask whether he is aware that this policy of selling bits of waterways has not always been a success in the past, and in fact it has made a perpetual state of loss an absolute necessity on those waterways where it has been followed?
§ LORD LINDGRENMy Lords, I am afraid—or, rather, I am not afraid; it is the fact—that the Board, within its managerial responsibility, has to dispose of property, and it is part of its managerial responsibility to judge if and when it should do it.