§ 90 and 91. Mr. S. Shephardasked the Minister of Works (1) how many surplus R.A.F. hangars passed to his Department are not situated on airfields; how many of them are empty and if he intends to dispose of those not in use;
(2) why none of the 387 surplus R.A.F. hangars handed to his Department have been disposed of; and what procedure must be adopted by persons or firms who wish to acquire them.
§ Mr. Tomlinson:Hangars which are no longer required by the R.A.F. and can be used for other purposes where they stand are handed over to the Board of Trade and not to my Ministry for allocation to meet Government storage requirements. The Board of Trade have allocated 114 hangars for this purpose to my Department, all of which are situated on airfields. Of these, 25 are at present empty but will shortly be taken into use for storage purposes. Surplus hangars on R.A.F. airfields which are not required for Government purposes and are to be removed from the site are disposed of by the Air Ministry. If they are to be disposed of as part of the sale of a surplus site the matter is handled by my Department. Accordingly applications for persons wishing to purchase hangars for removal from an R.A.F. airfield should be made to the Air Ministry; applications from persons wishing to purchase a site with the hangars erected thereon should be made to my Ministry. No hangars in either category are as yet available for disposal.