§ Sir KINGSLEY WOODasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether the Board investigates each case where an allotment holder receives notice to quit his allotment under the Cultivation of Lands Order; whether in each case it must be proved that the land is required for a better purpose than food production before it is released from the obligations of the Order; whether he will make representations to the local authorities that 1971W allotment holders under the Order should be permitted to cultivate the land until it is actually required for some more necessary public purpose than food production; and whether, in the event of an allotment holder being dispossessed, he will impress on local authorities the necessity of the dispossessed holders being provided with an equivalent amount of suitable land wherever possible?
Sir ARTHUR BOSCAWENThe Board cannot undertake to investigate each case, but the local authorities who administer the Order have been informed by the Board of the course they should adopt, and I am sending a copy of the instructions issued to them to the hon. Member. As regards the latter portion of the question, it is the statutory duty of the local authorities to provide land to meet the demand for allotments, but in urban areas there is often not sufficient land available to provide for all the applicants.