§ 35. Mr. Nabarroasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that a Royal Navy road tractor towing am articulated trailer, registration number 75.RN.08, with a tail-notice saying "Caution—Wide Load," carrying a naval aircraft, passed through Worcester towards Kidderminster on Saturday, 21st July, at a time of peak holiday traffic rush by road, causing congestion and a following line of vehicles estimated at more than a mile long; why it was necessary to move such a load at peak holiday time by road, rather than by sea or overnight; and what instructions he is now giving to prevent recurrence of such threats to road safety.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingI thank my hon. Friend for bringing this to my142W attention. We have standing instructions, of which we have reminded establishments, to keep heavy slow-moving loads to a minimum during the summer, but in this particular case we got our priorities wrong. This aircraft could and should have been sent by sea. I offer my apologies to road users who were inconvenienced by the hold-up. We are required by the Metropolitan Police to remove half-size model aircraft from the Royal Tournament this week-end. We plan to move them to the outskirts of London startling early on Sunday morning and to complete the journey from there to Lee-on-Solent early on Monday morning.