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Beeching Was Too Anti-road
Page 43
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ASURPRISED Commons heard from the Prime Minister this week that Lord Beeching did not carry out the Government's study of transport co-ordination because he was too prorailway and anti-road. Mr. Wilson had been asked to make a statement about Lord Beeching and the study.
" I was very anxious that Dr. Beeching, as he then was, should do this study ", said Mr. Wilson. "But he had, in his evidence to the Geddes Committee, taken a strong pro-railway and anti-road line and the Government considered that, unless he had attached to him assessors who could represent all points of view, there would be strong ground for criticism in this House and elsewhere. Unfortunately. Lord Beeching insisted on a one-man inquiry without assessors."
Sir Richard Nugent (Tory, Guildford) asked if the Prime Minister had not, in the first place, got Lord Beeching to agree to do this study single handed and afterwards imposed conditions on him which caused him to withdraw. Was not this what Mr. Cousins meant by " sacking " him?
This was denied by Mr. Wilson, who said that certainly the Government was very anxious that Lord Beeching, with his high qualifications, should conduct the inquiry.