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Carriageways

Volume 474: debated on Thursday 27 April 1950

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40.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that although the Housing Manual, 1949, provides for a carriageway 13 feet in width in a cul-de-sac not more than 600 feet in length, county councils are, in some areas, insisting upon such roads being of a minimum width of 15 feet or 16 feet, and that this difference of opinion between the highway authority and his Department is causing delay in the approval by his Department of housing schemes; and whether he will make arrangements for early discussions with the Minister of Transport, with a view to arriving at an agreed standard to which housing authorities can work.

I am not aware of any serious delays from this cause, but it is obviously desirable to have accepted minimum standards in this matter. My Department and the Ministries of Transport and Town and Country Planning have already held discussions with the Local Authorities' Associations on the standards provisionally recommended in the Housing Manual, and I hope that as a result an agreed schedule of road widths will be produced.