HC Deb 30 January 1974 vol 868 cc105-6W
Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he has not yet invited representatives of Rolls-Royce to give evidence about quiet aero-engines to his departmental inquiry re-examining the Maplin project, whether he will now do so;

(2) if he has not yet invited the appropriate representatives of the EEC to give evidence to his departmental inquiry reexamining the Maplin project, whether he will now do so;

(3) if he will seek evidence on the effects on air traffic in Scotland of a decision to build an airport at Maplin for the departmental inquiry on the Maplin project;

(4) if he will seek evidence on the effects on air traffic in Wales of a decision to build an airport at Maplin for the departmental inquiry on the Maplin project.

(5) if he has not yet invited representatives of the Institute of Freight Forwarders to give evidence about the future prospects for air freight traffic to his departmental inquiry re-examining the Maplin project, whether he will now do so;

(6) if he has yet invited any of the following airlines, current users of London Heathrow Airport, to give evidence to his departmental inquiry re-examining the Maplin project, namely Pan American, TWA, National, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Air France, Iberia, TAP, Sabena, KLM, SAS, Aeroflot, JAL, SAA, and Qantas;

(7) if he will list all those non-statutory bodies that he has invited to give evidence to his departmental inquiry re-examining the Maplin project;

(8) if he has not yet invited representatives of British Caledonian Airways to give evidence to his departmental inquiry examining the Maplin project, whether he will now do so.

Mr. Rippon

It is open to any body, statutory or otherwise, to let us have views on Maplin at any time.

Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the efforts being made to seek to attract the Brent goose away from the Foulness and Maplin area by means of growing elsewhere in the United Kingdom the food on which these birds feed.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

Studies being carried out by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology for my Department, as part of the research programme into wildlife at Maplin, cover both the food plants on which the Brent goose feeds and possibilities of attracting the geese away from Maplin. Initial experiments in transplanting to other sites the Zostera which forms an important element of the Brent goose's diet have been successful.