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Road Transport Topics
Page 89
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In Parliament
By Our Special Purl/amen tar y Correspondent
LONDON-TRANSPORTDEVELOPMENT PLANS. •
• • THEHouse of Commons, last Fri
day, agreed to the financial resolution, upon which the Government Bill is founded, guaranteeing the payment
• of principal. and • interest of
£40,000,000 to be raised for the Lon' don transport development scheme, recently outlined.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the programme of works that had been arranged. between the Treasury, on the one hand, andthe London Passenger Transport Board,
• and the Great Western and London and North Eastern Railway Companies, on the other, included three major schemes for the Underground and suburban districts of the L.P.T.B. area, dealing particularly with the north-east and north sectors, for the substitution of trolleybuses for trams in various parts of London, and for the reconstruction of certain tube stations. The estimated cost of the works was about £35,000,000, and borrowing powers would be divided between the L.P.T.B. (70 per cent.), the G.W.R. (5 per cent.) and the L.N.E.R. (25 per cent.).
The reason for the loan being £40,000,000 was the provision which allowed interest on borrowings to be paid during the period of construction, when the outlay was bringing in no return. The rate of interest had yet to be fixed.
He said the plant would be of United Kingdom. origin and manufacture, other things being equal, and much consideration was to be -given to concerns in the special areas. The huge programme must mean the placing of large orders not merely in London, but all over the country.
RAILWAY ACCOMMODATION DISGRACEFUL.
I N supporting the financial resolu
tion, Mr. Lansbury remarked that the overcrowding on the line to East Ham was disgusting, disgraceful and dangerous. On the North London line, people were still travelling in the same old cattle trucks as he had travelled in as a boy. Mr. M'Entee described the conditions on the line to Walthamstow and Chingford as a disgrace to civilization.
The resolution was agreed to without a division, and the Government intends to pass the Bill rapidly through Parliament.
INCREASE OF L.P.T.B. STAFF. 'WHENthe London Passenger TransVV port Board began operations, its staff, exclusive of railway men
employed on joint lines, numbered 70,500. On May 18 last the total was 70,802. The increase is in part due to the taking over of additional undertakings.
BIG MAJORITY FOR RAIDING ROAD FUND,
I N Committee of the House of Commons, the clause in the Finance Bill providing for the transfer of £4,500,000 from the Road Fund to the Exchequer was briefly discussed and carried by 206 votes to 53. Mr. G. R. Strauss made a protest, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that this was the third time the Fund had been used for other purposes, and that the commitments of the Fund were not being prejudiced.
The five-years' programme, which would be considerably in advance of anything done hitherto in any similar period, was not going to be diminished by the fact that this money, which was not now required for any commitments hitherto incurred, was used for the purpose now proposed.
MANY ROAD-WORK SCHEMES RECEIVED.
TIlE Minister of Transport states that he has so far received programmes of road and bridge work proposed for the next five years from 52 counties, 56 county boroughs and nine large burghs in Scotland.
£7,600,000 FOR MINOR WORKS.
PAYMENTS out of the Road Fund in respect of grants to highway authorities for the maintenance and minor improvement of classified roads in county areas are estimated to amount to £7,600,000 in the current
financial year. An estimate of the grants of major works of improvement cannot be given until the five-years' programmes have been received and examined.
RECONSTRUCTION OF 371 WEAK BRIDGES.
nURING the past two financial years,
schemes for the reconstruction of 129 bridges in private ownership were approved for grant, and the Minister has been advised of schemes for the reconstruction of 242 other bridges to be put in hand during the current financial year. • NO EXEMPTION FROM FARM TRACTOR DRIVING TEST.
THE Minister was asked by Briga dietl-General Clifton Brown if he were aware that drivers of agricultural tractOrs were asked to pass a general test, and were issued only a threemonths' licence until they did so, also if he were aware of the incon." venience caused • by the tractor hiving to be " driven a long road journey to the rendezvous for the test.' The Member asked that the . test should be abolished when the applica-. tion was for a licence to drive only an agricultural tractor.
Captain Hudson replied that instructions had already been given that examiners should make every effort to arrange the test at a rendezvous convenient to the agriculturist. The Minister had no power under Section 6 of the Road Traffic Act, 1934, to exempt drivers from a test.
NO REDUCTION OF VEHICLE DUTIES.
IN further course of. discussion in I. committee on the Finance Bill, a proposal was made by Mr. Parkinson to reduce the duties on goods vehicles by one-quarter of the sums set out in the Finance Act, 1933. He said the burden rested heavily on the transport industry and indirectly taxed trade generally. In urging a reduction, corresponding with that of the horsepower duty, he pointed out that the taxation paid by road transport was £1,500,000 more than the amount recommended by the Salter Commission. The concession would cost £2,750,000 a year, but the heavy increase in the taxation on heavy oil would_ to some extent counterbalance the concession.
In reply, the Parliamentary Secretary said the proposal would mean a loss to the Road Fund of £3,000,000 a year. As for discouraging the industry, the increase of vehicles during the past year was 12,000. No comparison could be drawn with tile reduction of the horse-power tax, which was designed to help manufacturers, who were handicapped in turning out suitable machines for the Colonies, etc. The Salter Commission recommended that the duties should be stabilised for five years. Nothing could be more clisturbing than a fluctuating basis of taxation.
Dr. Addison said that, with regard to the evil of a fluctuating system, the present Budget violated that agreement in respect of the tax on heavy oil. If there were a distinction to be made between pleasure-car and goods-vehicle taxation it ought to favour the latter. The proposal was rejected by 223 votes to 43.
RIBBON DEVELOPMENT BILL PROGRESS.
'THE Restriction of Ribbon Develop./ ment Bill which has been passed by the House of Lords received a second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, by 182 votes to 35, the Labour Opposition voting against it.