HC Deb 27 April 1914 vol 61 cc1354-5W
Mr. CHARLES BATHURST

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Road Board, after making a grant to the Wiltshire County Council of 50 per cent. of the cost of tar-spraying the main roads of the county where they pass through the more populous villages, have recently intimated that no further grant will be made for this purpose, with the result that the whole cost of the process will be thrown upon the county ratepayers; and, if so, whether, seeing that at least two-thirds of the dust nuisance from which the villages suffer is in that county occasioned by pleasure-seeking motorists living outside the county, the Government will undertake that an adequate proportion of the total cost of abating such nuisance shall continue to be defrayed out of the Motor Licence and the Petrol Duties which constitute the Road Board Fund?

Mr. MONTAGU

The Road Board have not intimated that no further grant will be made for tar-spraying. In January last, having regard to the sums then in course of distribution and to the grants already made and indicated to Wiltshire, amounting in all to £48,000, the Board informed the county council that they were not prepared to give any further assistance to the county for some time. But at a conference between the Board and representatives of the county council on the 25th inst., the Board, having in the meantime decided to make a further general distribution, intimated that certain further applications would be considered with due regard to the funds now available.

Mr. HOARE

asked when the Annual Report of the Road Board will be published?

Mr. LLOYD GEORGE

I hope towards the end of June.