§ 41. Mr. Nieldasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he is aware of the difficulty which is being experienced by housewives in obtaining deliveries of coke by lorry or cart unless such deliveries are of substantial quantities; and if he will take steps to improve the position.
§ Mr. GaitskellI have had no report of the difficulties mentioned by the hon. Member, but if he will send me particulars of any specific case with which he is familiar I shall be glad to make inquiries.
§ 66. Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the number of complaints, by letter, telephone and personal visit, made by registered consumers at the fuel office, Wandsworth, during each of the last four weeks, who had not received 10 cwt. and 5 cwt. of domestic coal, respectively, of their 15 cwt. allocation for the six months ended 31st October.
§ Mr. GaitskellFollowing is the information: The numbers of complaints about coal supplies made to the fuel office, Wandsworth, by telephone, letter or personal visit in the four weeks ended 1st November, were as follow:
Week ended 11th October … … 87 18th October … … 140 25th October … … 78 1st November … … 85 390 I regret that the more detailed information on the quantitative aspects of these complaints is not available.
236W
§ 71. Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the number of domestic coal consumers in the Borough of Wandsworth previously registered with Mr. J. H. Dorrington who were trans ferred to C. Crowhurst, Limited, on 1st October; the number to whom the latter merchant has delivered only 4 cwt. of the summer allocation of 15 cwt.; and what steps he proposes to take to ensure that these consumers receive at least 10 cwt. for the six months ending 31st October.
§ Mr. GaitskellThe number of domestic consumers in Wandsworth who accepted registration with Messrs. Crowhurst after this firm took over Mr. Dorrington's business on 1st October is 1,139. With regard to the remainder of the Question, an assurance was received from Messrs. Crowhurst that they would make every effort to ensure that consumers' receipts would be brought up to 10 cwt. by the end of October. Arrangements were also made to deal with any special difficulties in obtaining supplies. It has not been possible in the time available to make a full analysis of deliveries in October, but I am advised that Messrs. Crowhurst have done their best to implement their assurance, and I hope there will be few cases in which the total deliveries during the six months amounted to less than 10 cwt. Any cases of hardship will be dealt with by the local fuel overseer on application.
§ 72. Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the numbers of domestic consumers in the Borough of Wandsworth registered for coke with the Wandsworth and District Gas Company, and what has been the average delivery of the 20 cwt. coke allocation per registered premises, by the company in the borough, during the six months ending 31st October.
§ Mr. GaitskellThe number of domestic consumers in the Borough of Wandsworth registered with the Wandsworth and District Gas Company for coke is 4,159. Particulars of the average delivery per domestic registration by the company cannot be given for the borough separately, but I am informed that the company's average delivery to all their registered customers during the five months ended 30th September was 14 cwt. Later figures are not yet available.