POST OFFICE (SUBWAY) BILL (Hansard, 21 June 1966)

§ LORD SORENSEN

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. I do not think I need trouble your Lordships with a very long speech this afternoon on this particular Bill, the object of which is to enable my right honourable friend the Postmaster General to construct a subway under Severn Street, in Birmingham, to connect New Street Railway Station to a new letter and parcel sorting office to be built in Severn Street. The present sorting office is housed in buildings in Victoria Street which have long been inadequate. There is no room to expand, and no scope for introducing mechanical means of sorting and handling mail. The purchase from British Railways of a piece of land in Severn Street by my right honourable friend last autumn has enabled him to plan a new sorting office which will be the largest single postal building in the Provinces.

The existing letter and parcel offices are connected to New Street Railway Station by a tunnel which provides direct and quick access to all the station platforms. Without this, the Birmingham office would have been faced with grave difficulties long before now. The change of site will deprive the Post Office of the use of this tunnel, and the subway for which the Bill provides will be an essential link between the new office and New Street Railway Station. It would not, in fact, be practicable to carry all the mails to and from the station by van, as the station does not provide adequate access for postal vans—and, after its present reconstruction, it will provide even less. So the usefulness of the new sorting office really does depend on the subway.

The subway to be constructed under this Bill will run throughout its length under public streets—that is, under Severn Street and the intersections of Severn Street with other streets. It will run under the carriageway of the street and not under the footway, except where it enters the new sorting office site, at one end, and New Street Station, at the other. Its construction will cause no inconveni- 242 ence to the public. All the work will be done underground except on the post office site. The surface of the street will not be broken. The Bill empowers my right honourable friend to construct the subway, and gives him the necessary right to use the subsoil under the public highway. This subsoil is virtually without value to the owners, and so my right honourable friend has followed the precedent set by certain Private Bills, and has provided for use without compensation. The owners of adjoining property will, of course, be entitled, under the Bill, to compensation on the usual basis for physical damage to their property or for depreciation in value.

The subway is expected to be clear of all underground sewers, water and gas mains and electricity cables. Nevertheless, the Bill makes provision in case it should be found necessary to alter the position of such apparatus or to take protective measures. The Bill also provides, purely by way of precaution, for the underpinning or strengthening of nearby buildings. A provision of this kind is usual in Private Bills authorising the construction of works. Both the contract for the subway and the contract for the sorting office will be put out to tender. The construction of the subway is expected to cost £200,000 which will be paid from the Post Office Fund set up under the Post Office Act 1961.

My Lords, this is a hybrid Bill. Anyone whose interests will be affected and who wished to object has had an opportunity to petition to have his case heard in due course by a Select Committee. No Petitions against the Bill have been deposited in this House. My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time.