§ Captain Crowderasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recommendations he has received from the Special Committee of the Royal Automobile Club and Automobile Association regarding the parking of motor vehicles without lights; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. EdeThe Committee have asked that the powers of chief officers of police to permit vehicles to be parked without lights in authorised parking places should be more widely used, and that early legislation should be introduced to enable regulations to be made permitting vehicles to be left without lights in well-lighted streets. As regards the first point, the Commissioner of Police has recently decided to waive the lighting requirements at a considerable number of additional parking places in the Metropolitan Police District and proposes to keep the position under review. The matter is essentially one for decision in the light of local circumstances and. while I should hesitate to press chief officers of police generally to grant wholesale concessions, I propose to bring this Question and answer to their notice. The Committee's request for legislation is primarily a matter for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport, to whom a copy of the representations was sent. The proposal is, however, open to objection in view of the undesirability76W of indiscriminate parking of cars in the streets, and the objections are increased by the possibility of accidents if vehicles are parked without lights in fog or other adverse weather conditions or after the street lighting has been extinguished.