Cardiff Bay Development Corporation

HC Deb 19 June 1989 vol 155 cc25-6W

25. Mr. Gwilym Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the progress of the Cardiff Bay development corporation.

Mr. Peter Walker

The development corporation is making excellent progress. Some 300 acres of land has been acquired; site investigations for major land reclamation schemes are near completion; the local community has directly benefited by more than £3.5 million spent on various improvement projects. The barrage Bill can be expected to come before this House shortly, having recently been considered by a Committee in another place and approved there with one minor amendment.

The recent agreement with Associated British Ports for the development of large areas of land in the ownership of ABP will allow quicker progress to be made with the development of this important area of the bay.

I recently announced that, subject to parliamentary approval on the supplementary Estimate, I am providing a further £7 million this year to permit the corporation to acquire more land for development purposes.