§ Captain Kerbyasked the Minister of Transport (1) if he has received from the chairman of the South-East Area Transport Users' Consultative Committee the report which he requested on the proceedings and procedures adopted at the hearing into the proposed closure of the Shoreham-Horsham branch railway line which took place at Steyning on 26th February, 1963; and if he will make a statement;
(2) when he will reply in detail to the questions and complaints raised with him by the hon. Member for Arundel and Shoreham in his communications dated 2nd and 4th March concerning the procedure employed at the Transport Users' Consultative Committee hearing at Steyning on 26th February, 1964, on which he has called for a report from the chairman;
(3) following his request to the chairman for a report on the procedure at the hearing of the South-East Area Transport Users' Consultative Committee into the proposed closure of the Shoreham-Horsham branch railway line at Steyning on 26th February, 1964, what information he has received as to which members of the Committee attended the meeting; and what are their special qualifications.
§ Mr. MarplesI wrote to my hon. Friend at some length on 12th March about the results of my inquiries. Twelve members of the Committee were present at the hearing. Together they formed a fair cross section of the user interests I consulted before appointing the Committee.
Complaints about the arrangements for the meeting have largely arisen as a result of unauthorised advertisements by persons unknown which were put up in the locality beforehand. As to the proceedings themselves, the Committee heard a great deal of evidence on the hardship that closure might cause. My 156W information suggests that objectors had full opportunities to put to the Committee any points which they had not already made themselves in their written submissions and which had not been made by other objectors.