Mr. Amoryasked the Minister of Fuel and Power why he permitted the laying of a 15-mile gas main between Exeter and Tiverton for the purpose of closing down an efficient gasworks at Tiverton, having regard to the extreme shortage of pipes for rural water supplies.
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§ Mr. P. Noel-BakerTiverton gasworks is, I understand, old and inefficient and new carbonising plant and other work had been ordered by the previous gas undertaking before vesting day. The South-Western Gas Board inform me that they cancelled this work and substituted the new gas main because the capital cost would be less, because this would enable gas to be supplied from the larger works at Exeter at lower cost, and because the main would form part of the final integration of gas supplies between Exeter and Taunton. The new main will also give supplies to villages now without gas.