§ Sir W. Darlingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many acres of agricultural land have been made available for non-agricultural purposes, excluding forestry and industry, in 1945–46, 1947–48 and 1949–50.
Mr. McNeilI regret that I am unable to give complete details of all agricultural land made available since 1945 for the purposes mentioned in the hon. Member's Question. Details of land made available for housing are shown in the table below. In addition, some 4,000 acres of agricultural land have been made available for urban development in the areas designated for the new towns of East Kilbride and Glenrothes. A further 66,680 acres, mostly of rough grazings, had up to 31st December, 1950, been made available to the Services for training purposes. Most of these training areas will continue to be used as before for the rearing of livestock.
Details of land used or to be used for schools, playing fields, roads, private 236W development, etc., are not readily available. The area involved for these purposes in the years 1945 to 1950 is estimated at less than 1,000 acres in all. Not all the areas earmarked for development have already been diverted from agriculture and every effort is made to ensure full agricultural production as far as possible in the interim.
TABLE DETAILS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND MADE AVAILABLE IN THE YEARS 1945 TO 1950 FOR HOUSING PURPOSES. Acres. 1945 … … … 6,893 1946 … … … 7,838 1947 … … … 1,385 1948 … … … 926 1949 … … … 1,036 1950 … … … 880 Total … … … 18,958