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Lords Debate Derestriction
Page 114
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By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
JUSTIFICATION FOR DERESTRICTION?
ALONG debate took place in the .House of Lords last week on the regulation of road traffic. Lord Elton asked the Government on what principle the Minister of Transport was using his power to derestrict roads in built-up areas, sometimes against the wishes of local authorities, and whether he would consider issuing regulations more effectively to enforce speed limits.
He declared that the Minister was whittling away the existing law as to speed. Speed was a major factor in the holocaust of the roads, as was its control anclo'reduction. The Minister was in conflict with an increasing number of municipalities, by assuming greater powers in the process of clerestriction than Parliament intended.
In the 1934 Act, Parliament laid down, as a categorical principle, that in a built-up area there should be a speed limit. In giving the Minister power of derestriction, Parliament intended to make him the last court of appeal in deciding what was a built-up area, not to "enable him to remove the limit in an indisputably built-up area.
He quoted a recent ease in which the Minister derestricted 18 roads in Southampton against the express wishes of the local authority.
SPEED LIMIT ENFORCEMENT.
T"growing disrespect for speed limits, he continued, was because their enforcement was entrusted to a handful of uniformed policemen. More plain-clothes men might be used.
Another method was to employ mechanical controls which limited the speed to 30 m.p.h. He requested the Minister to state what reason existed against this effective and automatic enforcement of the law.
Viscount Cecil argued that evidence was overwhelming that the danger was the speed. Derestriction against the wishes of local authorities showed a totally wrong point of view.
Earl Howe said the recklessness of the pedestrian had to he seen to be believed An entirely new road system was needed Germany had a similar problem, but had tackled it. He suggested that some interrnediate marking than those at the beginning and the end of restricted areas should be introduced.
He begged their Lordships to remember that every accident was not necessarily the fault of the motor driver. The great majority of drivers earnestly wanted to observe the law.
On the subject of parking, Lord Ponsonby said the solution to the problem was a large, widespread, enterprising, expensive project for underground parking places.
Laid Newton, Lord La.mington. Lord Gainforcl, Lord Noel-Buxton and Viscount Elibank alSo spoke. MINISTER'S OBLIGATION TO DERESTRICT.
THE Earl of Erne, replying for the I Government, said it was clear from the 1934 Act that Parliament intended that the Minister should, if he considered it necessary, derestrict a road in opposition to the wishes of a local authority. It was clearly indicated, in the House of Commons debate on the Bill before it became an Act, that there were numbers of roads which, although lit, were quite safe for speeds greater than 30 m.p.h., and that such roads could be derestricted.
Parliament clearly imposed on the Minister an obligation to derestrict roads in those cases where he thought that refusal by a local authority to do so was unreasonable. It could not, therefore, be contended that the action of the Minister in over-riding the views of local authorities in a certain number of cases was wrong in principle.
In considering whether an unlighted road should be deemed to be a road in a built-up area, the Minister had regard to the actual fact of building developments, including the ,proximity of schools, the other physical characteristics of the road, the volume of pedes-. triau and vehicular traffic, and the accident record.
Every unreasonably restricted road must weaken the tendency of drivers strictly to observe the limit. Local authorities had on the whole exercised a wise discretion, hut there had been a considerable number of cases where orders had been submitted in respect of roads on which no building development had taken place or was projected.
The Minister would not have been justified, under the Act, in consenting to such orders in the form submitted. Only 25 orders had been made on local authorities who refused to accept the Minister's decision. These involved 134, as against the total of 1,750 lengths of road derestricted.
He had, in many cases, intimated that he would be prepared to review his decision in the light of experience. The Minister's first aim was safety and his second the convenience of tra.fhp. SPEEDOMETRIC DEVICES COMPULSORY.
As to the enforcement of speed the Minister had already included in the new regulations, coming into force On May 31, two designed to improve matters.
All vehicles other than those permanently restricted to a speed not exceeding 12 m.p.h. were to be equipped with an instrument, which would indicate, within a margin of accuracy of plus or minus 10 per cent., when a speed of 30 m.p.h. or 20 m.p.h. was being exceeded.
Further, heavy goods vehicles, articulated vehicles, motor tractors, etc., were to carry at the rear a disc showing the figure 20 to indicate their speed limit.
AUTOMATIC SPEED GOVERNORS.
ACONTROL mechanically to prevent a vehicle from exceeding a predetermined limit would, in the case of private cars, have to be brought into operation by the driver on entering a
built-up area. Deliberate tampering with the apparatus would be difficult to detect. A sudden cutting off of engine power might cause danger by limiting the driver's ability to manoeuvre in emergency.
As to the use of plain-clothes police, this was a matter for the discretion of the chief constable concerned.
In conclusion, he assured the House that the Minister welcomed any suggestion for reducing danger on the roads, and would thoroughly examine the various interesting points that had been raised.
NO SPEED RECORDERS FOR POLICE CARS. '
IN the House of Commons the Home Secretary stated that it was not his intention to adopt for the Metropolitan Police Area the graph system of recording the speed of police cars, in place of the existing method of speedometer reading.
EXPRESS STAGE SERVICES HANDICAPPED.
THE teason for omitting express carriages from the extension ot the period of a road service licence from one year to three years was asked by Vice-Admiral Taylor.
Mr. Hore-Belisha stated that, in general, express carriage services covered longer distances and were more liable to variations than stage services. He had, therefore, decided to restrict this experimental extension to the latter.
This discrimination between these two services, said Vice-Admiral Taylor, was a severe handicap. He asked the Minister to reconsider his decision.
Mr. Hore-Belisha replied that he was 'always rea.dy to reconsider any decision if fresh facts were brought to light.