Vol. 211 No. 8
I move:
That a sum not exceeding £175,700 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1965, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Valuation Office, the Ordnance Survey and certain Minor Services.
The same remarks apply very definitely here. Form 77 of the Valuation Office will not go into any photostatic machine.
I shall take a note of that.
I want to ask the Minister about an Ordnance Survey matter. I have recently seen several references in public to aerial survey of certain limited areas and I should like to know if the Minister is in a position to tell me if the Ordnance Survey have undertaken a general aerial survey of the whole country. This matter was raised some years ago, primarily at the instance of the Department of Agriculture, and there was some discussion. The Ordnance Survey raised objections to anyone undertaking aerial survey other than themselves in collaboration with the Army. The net result was that no general aerial survey was undertaken at that time. I think it is becoming more generally recognised now that an aerial survey of the country at large would be of value not only to the Department of Agriculture but to the Board of Works in many of its operations and to the Department of Industry and Commerce. Such surveys are available in respect of almost every other country in the world and I should be glad to know if our Ordnance Survey is in the process of doing one here or, if not, whether they intend to undertake that work.
I am sorry I cannot give the Deputy precise information. I did learn that they either intended to do or had commenced to do a certain amount of aerial photography but I am afraid I cannot say any more at the moment.
I fully appreciate that the Minister may not have detailed information about this at the moment but I should be grateful if he would, at his convenience, let me know whether those parts of the survey that may have been done will be made available to the public on the same basis as Ordnance Survey maps are made available at present. The possibilities of copying things now are so abundant that it appears it should be possible—although I am not familiar with the technicalities of the problem —to provide copies of aerial surveys just as one can bespeak an Ordnance Survey map of one's own property or any particular area. At the Minister's convenience, I should be glad to know if it is intended to make copies of the survey available on request for whatever is the appropriate fee?
I cannot say. Personally, I can see no objection to these being made available for copying if they are good photos but they may feel they should not be copied if they are not good enough. I shall get in touch with Ordnance Survey in regard to the points made by the Deputy and then I hope to be able to let him know how matters stand.
