§ Mr. Stubbsasked the Minister of Agriculture if he is aware that farmers and landowners in the Cambridgeshire Fen areas have to pay from £10 to £12 per acre improvement charges for the maintenance of the roads adjoining their 216W farms; and, in view of the fact that the public who use these roads pay nothing towards them, if he will instruct the Internal Drainage Boards to cease levying this charge as at present and hand the roads over to county councils, with a view to their maintenance at public expense.
Mr. T. WilliamsI am not aware that sums of this order have to be paid for road maintenance and I think my hon. Friend refers in the first part of the Question to the claims made by the Ministry for betterment due to the construction of fen roads under my authority in the exercise of powers conferred by Defence Regulations.
As regards the second part of the Question, the Cambridgeshire County Council have taken over several miles of these roads which they consider to have a general traffic value. I have no power to require them to take over the remaining roads, the responsibility for the maintenance of which must, therefore, remain with the Internal Drainage Boards under the provisions of Section 2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 1940.