Wales

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Peter Thorneycroft Mr Peter Thorneycroft , Sir Fynwy 12:00, 4 Tachwedd 1965

I have not come to this debate wholly unprepared. I have read with the greatest care, as I thought it my duty to the House to do, all the debates which have taken place in the Welsh Grand Committee and to inform myself to the best of a limited ability on some of these problems. I have also furnished myself with the terms of reference which the right hon. Gentleman gave to Economic Associates Limited. The right hon. Gentleman said: The consultants are being asked to make proposals for the provision, through the machinery of the New Towns Act, of an economically-viable urban centre in Mid-Wales which, by making available new opportunities for employment and by offering up-to-date shopping services and cultural and other facilities, including facilities for tourists, will arrest and I hope reverse the depopulation of the area and strengthen its economy"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd June, 1965; Vol. 713, c. 271.] That is a strange mixture of terms of reference and pious hope.

No doubt those would be the hopes of the Secretary of State if a new town were established. But the question which remains is: does it make any sense to build a new town? I have no doubt that Economic Associates, or probably anybody else, could produce a scheme for building something like Wolverhampton at Caersws if it made sense, but the effect which it would have on the depopulation of the hills of Mid-Wales and the almost disastrous effects it would have on the smaller townships of Newton and Welshpool, which would be bled of most of their best citizens, is something which we should ponder before we commit ourselves too far.

I am not too enthusiastic about some of the proposals of the Liberal Party. The suggestion for a motorway—not a double carriageway from which people could move into the lovely countryside of Montgomeryshire—which would sweep from the Midlands straight to Cardigan Bay, passing the constituency of the hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. Hooson), was as removed from the realities of the situation as his proposal to build Aberystwyth's population to 150,000 mounting in 50 years' time to 250,000. If the hon. and learned Gentleman is not careful, there will not be anybody left in Montgomery, and even the people who do go there will sweep across the countryside. Only the sheep will be left to vote for the hon. and learned Gentleman. I beg him to pause and re-submit some of his ideas to the Liberal Party's research committee before he presses too far solutions which I think are very wide of the mark.