Orders of the Day — Channel Tunnel Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr John Wells Mr John Wells , Maidstone 12:00, 5 Rhagfyr 1973

I am glad to be able to follow the hon. Member for West Lothian (Mr. Dalyell) in his very interesting speech. I support him particularly on his financial remarks about the monitoring of Clause 8. This is a matter of great importance. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, as I represent a Kent constituency, if I do not follow him in all the details which he mentioned.

I welcome in the warmest terms the proposal to build a Channel tunnel. Opponents of the proposal and of the Bill have put forward many bogus arguments. We should bear in mind the fundamental realities of the problems affecting the Channel ports and the problems of the environment of our county as it is today. It is said that if the tunnel was not built Folkestone and Dover would be jammed solid in a few years. But these towns are almost jammed solid already.

It must be remembered that the surface traffic at present travelling via the ports would concentrate in South-East Kent. Fifty-five per cent. of all vehicles and trailers go through Kent, not by Harwich and Tilbury and other ports. Last year there was an increase of 43 per cent. in freight lorries in Dover compared with the previous year. This rate of increase is making conditions intolerable in that port. Opponents of the tunnel consistently neglect the current situation.

In a debate in the other place on 13th November Baroness Young made a remark: We must, and we will, do everything in close association with the local authorities to reduce these difficulties to a minimum and to ensure that those affected are treated generously."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, House of Lords, 13th November 1973; Vol. 346, c. 569.] Baroness Young was dealing with the environmental problems of those people who will be adversely affected by the "Chunnel" works.

Can my right hon. Friend spell out, in rather more detail, what Baroness Young and other Ministers who have spoken on this particular matter mean by the phrase "treated generously"? We all know that the words of Ministers, however well intended, carry no force of law. Ministers can say the most generous-minded things, especially in Committee, but when the courts or Department of the Environment inspectors come to interpret the law the result is a miserable district valuer's valuation—or possibly not even that.

The main line approaching the Channel Tunnel passes right across the Weald of Kent, through my constituency and the constituencies of some of my right hon. and hon. Friends. We are anxious for the well-being of our constituents. We accept the honourable assurances which are given but we want them spelled out in great detail.

A number of people are agitating against the tunnel project. There is a bogus noble Lady. Her husband is not a lord, but she calls herself "Lady Haliburton". She and her husband are bogus people. She sits on the county council, as a Liberal. My point is simply that many of the opponents of the tunnel are going about by stealth and deceit.

A hand-out sent to me this morning, and, I dare say, to other hon. Members, dated 3rd December from the Conservation Society quotes from the speech of my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Mr. Deedes) during the debate on 25th October and implies that my right hon. Friend is against the tunnel. It takes out a "mini" passage from my right hon. Friend's long, thoughtful and careful speech. The words it ascribes to him were uttered by him, but it is a misquote, a mis-placement of the words. What worries me is that the opponents of the tunnel go on endlessly like this. They quote the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Mr. Prescott). I am sorry that I have not warned him that I would refer to him. The hon. Member is well known for his interest in the seamen's cause and is an honest opponent of the tunnel. Again, words are taken from his perfectly reasonable and thoughtful speech and misquoted. It is misrepresenting the total spirit of the hon. Gentleman's speech.

I hope that the Government will go out of their way to try to allay the fears of people like my constituents and others who are genuinely anxious but whose fears are exacerbated and stirred up by, frankly, dishonest grumblings. We have heard today from the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Tope). We are now missing the Liberal Party. I am sorry to have to speak about the hon. Member in his absence but he has made his speech and left. He said, among other ridiculous things, that he saw no cause for guarantees. Surely it is widely understood that unless there is a Government guarantee it will be impossible to raise the loans overseas because of the rules of the stock exchanges or bourses or Government regulations overseas. If we are to get foreign as well as British capital to finance these loans the Government must give guarantees. I am confident that the guarantees will never be called upon but it is only reasonable and right that they should be provided.

Not only have we to see the effect of the tunnel on our county but we must try to look at it through private eyes and think of the advantages to the nation as a whole. There has been the inevitable scaremongering that the price of petrol will rise to a huge figure. If it did the tunnel could be used primarily as a rail tunnel. Advocates of a rail-only tunnel seem to forget that once the tunnel is built it could perfectly reasonably be used primarily as a rail tunnel. It would be said that the vehicle marshalling yards and so on would be useless, but there would always be a considerable volume of road traffic whatever the price of fuel. It is my firm belief that we have to put forward the tunnel system, which is most likely to be an economic one at present.

The Government are quite right to go forward in providing the tunnel which would appear to measure up to that requirement. If we went bald-headed for a rail-only tunnel the forecasts are clear—it would not pay nearly so soon, if ever. If we are entering an era of slower growth—we have seen an anticipated zero growth in Germany for the coming year—there is likely to be a reduction in commercial traffic. But the holiday traffic will still go on, and it may become rail holiday traffic. The businessman is likely to prefer to go by tunnel rather than from Heathrow, with its attendant foggy winter nights.

Our hon. and right hon. colleagues who attend the European Parliament would surely rather travel in comparative comfort and speed through a rail tunnel than spend long hours hanging about at Heathrow waiting for aircraft with uncertain departure times. Whether we are speaking of freight or holidays, political or commercial passenger usage, the fact remains that the tunnel will help the nation. Provided it is dealt with sympathetically, I believe it will help our country, which at the moment is overrun with lorries.

One of the greater follies in the speech of the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam came when he complained that the Channel Tunnel would put more lorries on the by-ways of Kent. Surely the by-ways of Kent are filled with lorries at the moment because of his friend, my former Liberal opponent, who has put down a great freight depot on a small country lane. It may be said that this was negligent planning on the part of the county council, and that may have been so in the past, but the fact remains that the depot is there and is causing the damage to our county now. It has nothing to do with the tunnel. I deplore this completely bogus attitude, taken not only by the Liberal Party but by nearly all opponents of the tunnel.