ROAD TRANSPORT MATTERS IN PARLIAMENT.
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The Tetra-ethyl Inquiry. Road Damage from Tractor Wheels. Putting Limits on Heavy Transport. The Railways Bills. The Road Fund.
(By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent.) MR. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, Minister of Health, stated in the House of Commons on March 1st that he proposed to set up a Committee of Inquiry regarding the use of tetra-ethyl, on which the Home Office, the Air Ministry, the Medical Research Council and the Ministry of Health would be represented, and which would also include the Government chemist and some men of scienee unconnected with any department. Exact composition. and terms. of reference of, the Committee had not yet been decide. ,Colonel. Howard-Bury suggested that in view of the great dangers of lead poisoning and the fact that the Committee would takesome time to carry out its investigations, the Minister should' consider the prohibition of tetra-ethyl until the Committee reported. Mr. Chamberlain give a reply in the negative. The • information which came to him did not warrant the statement that there were great dangers up to the present. 'No case of poisoning had been reported in this country, nor, so far as he was aware, in America, where the substance had been in use for a long time. In further reply he said he had seen the statement of Sir William Pope that five deaths and over a score of cases of poisoning had occurred in America, but he knew that a scientific committee was appointed in America by the Public Health Department there, consisting of seven scientific men, and they stated that no positive evidence had been received by them showing that any cases of poisoning had occurred. Colonel Howard-Bury asked if it was not the case that lead poisoning took a considerable time to come out, and, as this was a totally new spirit, there had not yet been time.
Mr. .Chamberlain disagreed. The commission in America to which he had referred stated that they had had cases under observation for two years. Sir Harry Brittain asked if it was not the fact that this spirit had been used in the -United States by hundreds Of thousands of motorists for a very long time. Mr. Chamberlain replied : I believe so.
Tractors and Road Damage.
1019 OAD damage due to the ribbed wheels of heavy lLtractors and the necessity for restriction having been mentioned by Sir Robert Thomas, Colonel Ashley said he was reluctant to take piecemeal action under the strictly limited powers in respect of locomotives conferred upon him by existing statutes, but as soon as amending legislation OD the lines of the Road Traffic Bill was passed it was his intention to deal comprehensively with the construction and use of heavy road vehicles generally.
Limitation of Heavy Transport.
A TTENTION having been called by Sir Alfred Knox .t" 3Lto the absence Of powers on the part of local authorities te limit the number, size and weight of heavy transport in the areas they administered, Colonel Ashley pointed out that the county councils already had powers under the Roads Act, 1920, to apply to him for orders prohibiting or restricting the use of heavy motor vehicles on roads which were unsuitable for them. In view of the wide radius of action of modern road-transport traffic, restrictions could not be regarded as a matter of purely local Interest, and powers to impose them must necessarily be subject to the control of a central authority.
Railways and Canals.
IT is officially stated that the total length of canals in Great •Britain 'owned or leased by railway companies at December 31st, 1927, was 1,050 miles. During the year 1927 traffic was conveyed over all those canals except three of a total length of 13i miles, but the information available does not indicate what proportion of the total mileage was actually used for the transportation of goods.
No Finality to Road Schemes.
CDL. ASHLEY states that no finality is claimed for the numerous arterial-road schemes now proceeding in Various parts •of the country, and his department is alwoys engaged in the examination of " further projects submitted by local authorities.
Toll Gate on Cardiff-Barry Road.
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THE suggested freeing of the toll gate on the road from Cardiff to Barry has been the subject of discussion between officers of the Ministry of Transport and representatives of the local authorities, hut no definite application has bees made.
Grouping of the Railways.
MHE Minister of Transport says he has no knowI_ ledge of any contemplated consultation on the regrouping of railways with a vie* to placing the railways in Scotland in a separate group, and he would deprecate any disturbance at present in the general scheme for the grouping of the railways which was Settled by Parliament so-recently as 1921.
A State Toll.
THE only toll bridge under the administration of the Ministry of Transport is the Menai Suspension Bridge, the tolls on which amounted to £13,140 in the year ended February 18th, 1928. No toll roads are administered by the department.
Streatham Road Widening.
THE Minister of Transport states that he has received the draft agreement between the Southern Railway Co. and the Surrey County Council with regard to the widening of the Streatham Road railway bridge. It is now being examined in the department and until the terms have been finally settled he will not be in a position to authorize a grant towards the cost .of the work.
Scottish Road Transport Bills.
TAST Tuesday the House of Commons agreed to 4 I commit the five Railway Road Transport Bills to a Joint Committee of Lords and Commons.' On the same day the two Scottish Bills promoted by the L.N.E.R. and the L.M.S.R., which are identical in terms with the other five Bills but must be promoted separately in accordance with the Scottish'private legislative procedure, were given a seccind reading: These two Bills will be sent with the other five to the Joint Committee.
A Scottish member was anxious to discover from the Speaker if there was any safeguard for the protection of the road-transport interests of Scottish municipalities, and was told that no doubt there were petitions asking for protection of the kind which would be heard by the Committee. As a matter of fact, each of the Scottish Bills has been petitioned against by 33. bodies, including town and county councils, road-transport corn panics and associations and the Federation of British industries..
Bridge Reconstruction.
IN the coming year, Viscount Peel announced, £230,000 was being set aside to assist-, highway authorities in bridge reconstruction. This scheme of bridge reconstruction would be continued until all the bridges were lit a state to carry the traffic which the roads had to bear. One reason why it was inadvisable to proceed too hurriedly with new roads was the constant redistribution of population. They must consider the different forms of transport that were developing, and another matter was that they had not yet arrived at the ideal system of road construction. All sorts of problems were being worked out at the Ministry of Transport, and he thought it would be a mistake to cover the country with a network of great racing tracks and then perhaps in a few years find these had not been properly constructed. He thought they might congratulate themselves on the fact that, though much reMained to be done, British roads were probably the best in the world'.
The Raids on the Road Fund.
..ARL BEAUCHAMP, in the House of 'Lords last _I2J Tuesday, initiated a debate upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer's raids on the Road Fund, Practically all his arguments have already, been used in Previous debates. He emphasized the effect of the raids in hindering necessary road improvements, maintaining that approved schemes 'had. been nioditied, cut down
or cancelled whilst work on other. sections had been slowed down. One piquant criticism was that it was difficult to point to specific instances, as county surveyors were &Pendent upon the Ministry of Transport or the sanction of their schemes and declined to make any official pronouncement, whilst the Treasury exerted pressure on the Ministry of Transport to prevent the publication' of any statement which might be detrimental to Treasury policy. He, however, mentioned as instances the Western Avenue, Shooter's Hill Pass, and Colnbrook.
Earl Russell supported Earl Beauchamp's point of view, while Lord Cottesloe urged the further relief of the ratepayers' burden.
Viscount Peel, speaking for the Government, twitted Earl Beauchamp with having a year ago spoken in favour of economy, and being DOW influenced by the Liberal "Yellow Book." After recapitulating Mr. Churchill's arguments on the necessity of a due relation of road expenditure to the nation's financial situation, he replied to the complaint of the holding up of schemes by saying that there had been steady growth of expenditure of from £1,000,000 to 12,000,000 a year in grants for the Road Fund, -which in 1027 amounted to over £19,000,000.
Yorkshire Petition Against Tolls.
A PETITION signed by 3,333 inhabitants of the ..C1.townships of Barlby andSelby in the East and West Ridints of York and adjoining, villages, against the continuance of bridge tolls, has been presented to the House of Commons.