Welsh Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 December 1972.

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Photo of Mr Neil McBride Mr Neil McBride , Swansea East 12:00, 19 December 1972

I shall not follow the hon. Member for Barry (Mr. Gower) in his arguments, except in so far as they relate to the monstrosity of the Common Market, if time permits later in my speech.

I was struck by the fact that the Secretary of State made no mention of integration of transport, a matter to which he, the Minister of State and the Government are now committed, or, as was proved yesterday, they would have to go.

We are concerned in Swansea and all over the Principality about the possible cutting of railway services. Any suggestion of pruning the rail network in Wales will be bitterly opposed. Coupled with the cutting of passenger services, another menacing factor is looming: the threat in Wales to the goods marshalling yards and the goods service facilities.

Since the Principality, clearly, cannot trust this Government, this is an appropriate moment, I feel, to issue a warning against the possible reduction of these yards and facilities. The warning is timely, for three excellent reasons: first, the effect on the finances of British Rail; second, the financial effects on the British Transport Docks Board; and, third, the general detrimental effect on the Welsh economy.

British Rail lost money last year, and the prospects for the current year cannot be described as favourable. Nor do future prospects look good. But my fraternal brothers who are employed in British Rail criticise the Government's emphasis on motorways, bearing in mind their commitment to transport integration. With a cost of £1 million per mile on average for motorways, they believe that, while new roads are necessary, a proper balance should be struck and a close examination made, so that proper and equal attention can be given to the Welsh rail network, in passenger and freight services.

Vested interests are campaigning for new roads, but the railways are losing traffic which they are suited to carry. This poses a serious threat to the ports owned by the British Transport Docks Board. Of course I fight for my constituents. I was elected to do so, and the port of Swansea is in my constituency.

Of the traffic going through the port last year, only 34 per cent. of the exports arrived there by rail. Ministers say that they attend to Welsh affairs. My charge is that they do not. Steel, tin plate and aluminium exports amounted to 420,000 tons, and only 189,000 tons was carried by rail. Of 83,000 tons of similar imported goods, only 26,000 tons was carried by rail.

From one local colliery, 63 lorries go each day, carrying 20 tons each to Manchester, Birmingham and London—traditional rail traffic. From another, 70 lorries load daily because it is impossible to secure wagons. As a result, in my constituency the Jersey Marine Marshalling Yard has been demoted and the Eastern Freight Depot, employing 170 men, is threatened with closure.

In 1970, nearly all the 161,000 tons of steel products to Port Talbot docks was carried on British Rail from Abbey Steelworks, but now Port Talbot docks is closed. Most of the traffic of this nature now goes to Swansea by road. Of the 240,000 tons of coal imported through Port Talbot last year, only 40,000 tons went by British Rail.

In addition, there is an inability to secure wagons for tin plate, sulphur and stone. This has been a matter of great concern in recent weeks. The port of Swansea is publicly owned and I want it to be viable, as I am sure the Minister of State does—unlike his right hon. and learned Friend, who said that public ownership is a fiasco.

The time has come for Wales to have a properly integrated transport system, always remembering that the Government are now committed to this. Integration is necessary because these two publicly-owned industries should work as one. I will tell the Minister in a minute the details, if he is asking for information.

In my view, the arguments are overwhelming. Transport should be integrated to maintain continuity of employment and the viability of South Wales ports, including that of my own home city, and the general economic life of the city and the whole Principality. I am concerned to find that these things are happening.

I have stated my view, which probably the Minister has read, but I will repeat it. If we are to attract industry to Swansea, in addition to the fine passenger service between Swansea and London we must have a freight service of equal excellence, guaranteeing swift passage of goods between Swansea docks and all her parts of the country. If reorganisation of freight traffic takes place in addition to the threats posed by the passenger traffic in Strasbourg, to which the hon. Gentleman is committed, we shall have to look closely at this matter. The result of taking traffic from Swansea and placing it in Margam, despite the fact that Port Talbot docks are closed, could make the port, the second city of Wales, become a backwater. Is that the Government's policy?

In the rest of the Principality the continuity of rail and freight services is a matter for worry. We look to the Government to provide the answer. I invite both Ministers, as is fashionable now, to stand Tory policies on their heads—they are experts in that, being political acrobats of the first water—and to integrate transport in Wales.

We read yesterday in The Times that the Government have approved a £65 million grant for a scheme designed to provide the backbone to Tyneside's public transport system for the 1980s based on a fast and frequent rail link integrated with bus, road and parking facilities. The Minister of State is party to that. He is committed and he cannot say "No". Consequently, with the right conferred on me, massively, at a free, democratic election, this is a moment at which I can say that I applaud the decision to integrate transport in the North-East. But what is good for the North-East must be good for Wales. My trade union friends who met last night in Swansea are saying the same thing. It is up to the hon. Gentleman to match their assertion with his. This precedent must be followed.

I can say without presumption—I think that I carry my right hon. and hon. Friends with me—that when we consider it right to make a grant for the North-East we are talking of an area. We are considering Wales today. Wales is a country and a people. It is significant that unemployment is still high in Wales. We have heard the hon. Member for Barry talking about unemployment. That is a matter upon which I am an expert, and about which, with all generosity, the hon. Gentleman knows nothing. The most serious threat facing Wales, which was stated by the Secretary of State in the green masterpiece, is that the metal-producing industries—for example, the steel industry—and the chemical industries contain the highest unemployment. If capital goods manufactured in Wales, and flowing from Wales to swell our exports, are not being manufactured in sufficient quantity, we have to look at the prospects which will face us. We have been told about the opportunities in the Common Market. Neither the Secretary of State nor the Minister of State can or will tell us about these. They have the reports in the Welsh Office: but they will not tell us because the reports are not good. The hon. Gentleman is on the Front Bench and can intervene now to tell the Principality. The challenge could not be more obvious. But his feet will no come off the Dispatch Box.