§ Sir B. PETOasked the Minister of Transport whether his Department is definitely committed to the construction of a new road through the Pass of Glencoe at a cost of £500,000; and whether, in view of the heavy burden of the rates on agriculture and industry, he will consider the advisability of expending only the comparatively small sum required for widening and surfacing, and allocating the remainder to the relief of rates for the maintenance and improvement of rural roads in other parts of Great Britain?
§ Colonel ASHLEYI have allocated £500,000 towards the remodelling by the Argyllshire County Council of the Tyndrum-Ballachulish route, which forms the direct means of communication from Glasgow to the Western Highlands. The route in question is 30 miles in length, including the section through the Pass of Glencoe, and the road as reconstructed will in no place exceed 18 feet in width. My hon. Friend is mistaken in supposing that a small sum would suffice to widen and surface the existing road, which is steep, narrow, tortuous, weak and in places dangerous, and the amount which I have allocated is only that shown to be required as a result of careful survey for adapting the road to the traffic which is likely to come upon it.