§ Mr. LOUIS SMITHasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in connection with the capitalisation by the railway companies of the amount of the abolished Railway Passenger Duty and its employment on works modernising railway transport, he will consider the desirability of suggesting the partial employment of this money in the direction of reducing the number of level crossings, which are not merely a source of delay and inconvenience but productive of loss of life?
§ Colonel ASHLEYI have been asked to answer this question. During the past financial year a sum of £250,000 was set aside from the Road Fund for providing assistance on special terms to highway authorities towards the expenditure incurred by them in the reconstruction of weak bridges in private ownership and in the construction of bridges to take the place of level crossings on important roads. The sum to be set aside for these purposes in 1929–30 has been increased to £500,000. I am ready to assist any well considered scheme submitted by a highway authority for the abolition of a level crossing, and generally speaking this is, in my opinion, the proper method of dealing with individual cases of this nature as they arise.