A Deplorable Decision The Committee of the House of Lords,
which under the chairmanship of Lord Redesdale has been examining the South Downs Preservation Bill, has come down on the side of the Brighton Corporation in the controversy over the proposed motor racing track, and has given the pro- moters of the Bill till next October to accede to an agree- ment on this point on pain of losing their Bill. It is im- possible not to regret the decision profoundly. The Bill has the landowners of four-fifths of the Downs area on its side, and no single local authority opposes it except Brighton and Hove, which in relation to the Downs are really rather adjacent than component authorities. The motor racing track proposal involves nothing more intri- cate than the usual clash between moneyed interests and amenity interests. No one who knows the area and is unaffectedly concerned for its amenities, entertains any doubt on the matter. The House of Lords committee has made itself an accomplice in a most indefensible sort of profiteering, and deprived the public of a reasonable protection for which it was entitled to look to Parliament in an affair of much national besides local consequence.
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