§ 3.14 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT ADDISONMy 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 they would consider introducing a requirement that frontages of harbours leased to foreign oil interests are employed fully by inter-company arrangement before granting authority for further frontages to be provided for different oil companies when existing ones are employed only to the extent of 10–15 per cent. usage.]
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONMy Lords, Her Majesty's Government do not consider that a requirement of the 801 kind proposed is necessary. Intercompany arrangements for the sharing of port facilities should be left to the managements concerned where a commercial arrangement of this kind may be appropriate.
§ VISCOUNT ADDISONMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his reply—and I know that he has given a lot of thought to this—may I ask him whether he is aware that it may not be quite so much a matter of planning, as a matter of the freezing-up of scarce wharfage areas, to the potential disadvantage of other users?
§ LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTONMy Lords, I think we are aware of this. The commercial companies in most areas are fully occupying their space; in one or two cases there are more ample facilities, but they are not willing to share, and we must leave this to them.