§ Mr. Trewasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has now received questioning the validity of the Merrison Committee's rules for appraising the design of box girder bridges; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Graham PageMy right hon. Friend has received no direct representations but I have seen recent articles to this effect inThe GuardianI am also aware that a statement rebutting the allegations in the first article referred to has been issued by Imperial College and I have also seen the letter from Dr. Merrison published in The Guardian. I am entirely satisfied that it was right to apply the Merrison rules to all box girder bridges and where necessary to strengthen bridges in accordance with them. The Merrison Committee is now engaged on drawing up rules for the design of new box girder bridges and research in support of the committee's work is being carried out in a number of places.
The results of this research are now beginning to come forward and I am advised by Dr. Merrison that nothing has so far emerged that causes him or his Committee in any way to doubt the validity of their work or of the strengthening of existing bridges which has been carried out in accordance with 262W their rules. I deplore the unnecessary alarm that has been caused by these ill-founded reports.