Hansard

Written Answers

Volume 429: debated on Tuesday 27 April 1982

Download text
Back to top
The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

Written Answers

The Seven Mile/Berney Levels Drainage Scheme

Lord Melchett

asked Her Majesty's Government:In respect of the Lowe Bure, Halvergate Fleet and Acle Marshes Internal Drainage Board's (IDB) application for grant-aid from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food towards the cost of the proposed Seven Mile/Berney Levels drainage scheme, whether they agree that:

  • (i) An access road costing £200,000 is not reasonably required for the purpose of installing a new pump;
  • (ii) The provision of this access road is not eligible for grant-aid from money voted by Parliament for land drainage purposes;
  • (iii) The main benefit from the provision of this road at very substantial public expense will be to those landowners who subsequently drain their grazing marshes and convert them to arable cropping;
  • (iv) No estimates have been made by the IDB of alternative and cheaper means of providing access to the pumping station; and
  • (v) No estimates have been made by the IDB of the benefits that will accrue to individual landowners as a result of the proposed expenditure on this access road.

    • The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
    (Earl Ferrers)

    The answers to the questions by the noble Lord about the proposed Seven Mile/Berney Levels drainage scheme are as follows:

  • (i) We are satisfied that an access road of a total length of 5.4 km is essential to allow for the construction and future maintenance of the new pumping stations at Seven Mile and Berney Levels; and that the estimated cost of £200,000 is not unreasonable for a road of this kind.
  • (ii) Where expenditure on an access road is an integral and necessary part of a scheme for the improvement of drainage, it is eligible for grant-aid under the appropriate provisions of the Land Drainage Act.
  • (iii) Because the road is essential to enable the pumps to be constructed and maintained, the main beneficiaries will be the drainage ratepayers in the whole of the area which will be drained by the new pumps; many of the farmers will also enjoy the additional benefits of improved access to their land.
  • (iv) The decision to build a concrete road was first taken by the IDB in 1978 after full consideration of the alternatives in consultation with Ministry engineers.
  • (v) The estimated benefits of the scheme are assessed on the area as a whole, not on an individual farm basis. When the land is revalued for the purpose of drainage rates, it is likely that farms which enjoy good access will be assessed at higher rateable values.

    • The Falkland Islands And The International Court Of Justice

    Lord Mishcon

    asked Her Majesty's Government:In the light of the statement by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on 19th April that they have never proposed that the claim of the Argentines to sovereignity of the Falkland Islands be submitted to the International Court of Justice (

    Official Report, column 399), whether they have seen the statements to the contrary which appeared in The Times editorial on 20th April and in an article of Mr. James Fawcett (until recently President of the European Commission of Human Rights) in the special April issue of Chatham House on "The Falkland Islands Dispute", and whether they will make a further statement to clarify the position.

    Lord Belstead

    As I said in reply to the noble Lord, Lord Robbins, on 19th April, Argentina has shown no interest in referring the issue of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to the International Court of Justice, and the British Government have never proposed it. That is the position as concerns the Falkland Islands themselves.However, in December 1947, April 1951 and February 1953, the United Kingdom invited Argentina to submit to the International Court of Justice the dispute about sovereignty over the Falkland Islands Dependencies as then constituted. Argentina declined those invitations. Similar invitations were addressed to Chile, but they also were declined. Consequently, no reference of these disputes to the court was made following these initiatives.On 4th May 1955, Her Majesty's Government submitted to the International Court of Justice an application instituting proceedings against Argentina concerning sovereignty over the islands and territories which then comprised the Falkland Islands Dependencies—namely, the islands and territories which since 1962 have been constituted as the Falkland Islands Dependencies (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) and the British Antarctic Territory. A similar application was submitted to the court instituting proceedings against Chile concerning sovereignty over the South Shetland Islands and Graham Land, which at that time formed part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies but which now form part of the British Antarctic Territory. The Government of Argentina and the Government of Chile did not accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice for the purposes of Her Majesty's Government's applications, and the court, by its orders of 16th March 1956, ordered the cases to be removed from the court's list.House adjourned at twenty-three minutes before ten o'clock.