§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for a report from the chief constable of Cheshire police as to how many vehicles containing people intending to support the National Graphical Association picket were stopped by the police on 30 November (a) in the immediate vicinity of Winwick quay industrial site, (b) outside the immediate vicinity of Winwick quay industrial site; and of the latter number what proportion were on the westbound carriageway of the M62.
§ Mr. Hurd[pursuant to his reply, 6 December 1983, c.111]: The chief constable of Cheshire tells me that on the evening of 30 November so many vehicles had parked near Winwick quay that there was no room for more and a queue of vehicles stretched the length of the slip road to the site of the M62. There was a serious risk of the queue of stationary vehicles extending on to the motorway itself and causing a danger to traffic. To avoid this, at 11.45 pm the police closed the exit from the motorway to the slip road and diverted coaches to the nearby Burtonwood service area, where passengers were able either to alight or to continue their road journey by another route. This diversion was the only sense in which coaches were stopped by the police, although some, dangerously, stopped on the hard shoulder of the motorway. The chief constable has no information as to how many coaches which would otherwise have tried to use the exit to the slip road could not as a result of its closure.