Former MP for Lewisham South
Although every hon. Member will probably agree that opponents of a Private Bill may use all possible opportunities to oppose it, there must come a time when the House has to come to a decision. Nothing that I have heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Gloucestershire, West (Mr. Loughlin) and Erith and Cray-ford (Mr. Wellbeloved) has satisfied me that they have advanced any valid reason...
Not now. Secondly, it would be very regrettable if the reflections of my hon. Friends who have opposed the Bill should be seen to have any support in the House. To refer to this as a "miserable little Bill" is to use parliamentary language quite inappropriate for serious discussion. When one analyses the very lengthy and erudite speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Crayford...
It would also not be appropriate for the promoters, a local authority, to decide what the procedure should be. The procedure for voting having been laid down, it would have been quite inappropriate for the promoters to change it. If the promoters had sought to do that my hon. Friends would have risen in great objection. They would have wanted to know why a local authority should be allowed to...
I am trying to follow the hon. Gentleman's argument. Surely this point was the main feature in the debate on Second Reading, and the House did not accept the argument.
On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Surely the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop) is going deeply into the merits of the Bill. He is anticipating the debate which will take place next Session when the report is before the House. Those of us who have spoken in the past have made only passing reference to the merits, but the hon. Gentleman is attempting to make a detailed...
The hon. Gentleman must be unaware that I have been sitting in my place since the debate started.
I think the Under-Secretary of State will agree that we can begin this short debate with at least one point of agreement—that it is particularly timely, first, because the Countryside Commission, which is mainly concerned with long-distance paths, has just announced a new study of them, and, secondly, because of the rather ambiguous reference to grants for these routes mentioned in the...
I should like to say a few words about the Bill because it deals with the reorganisation of the administration of Ashdown Forest, and the Commons Society, of which I am chairman, is naturally interested in a forest area which is a large common of 6,400 acres. The society's interest has been recognised by the promoters of the Bill, for we were first consulted about the problems with which it...
