THE TORIES SPEND

OUR MONEY? With the Tory government freezing wages, in the name of 'halting inflation', it is only natural that people should keep a keen eye on just how the government itself spends money.

So when it was learnt that £100,000 was being spent to provide lodgings for two near Preston, trade unionists and local councillors in Lancashire started to ask questions.

Questions were also asked in the House of Commons. And to confirm the suspicion that something was wrong, it has been disclosed that the government is paying more than twice the value that was originally put on the property concerned —for a building that many see as totally unnecessary.

Lord Hailsham, the one-time candidate for Tory leadership, who is Lord Chancellor, decided that Bilsborrow Hall, between Preston and Garstang, should be purchased as Judges' Lodgings, to be made available for when High Court hearings at the Lancashire Crown Court are transferred to Preston. nurseries in the area.

Certainly £100,000 is considerable. In reply to questions from Miss Mary Holt, Tory MP for Preston North, the under-Secretary for the Environment, Mr Reginald Eyre, disclosed:

"The figure, being the open market value assessed as for compulsory purchase at November 1972, was £40,000' Two other cases occurred last year where the Exchequer agreed to pay out more than the value placed on property —one contract was for 5,600 sq yds at Crosby Road, Northallerton, the other concerned land at Crawley Hill, Camberley.

One added attraction, perhaps, for the judges to have digs at Bilsborrow, is that the Hall has been honoured by another exalted guest - the then Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan stayed there in 1959.

At that time the owner was one John Barton-Townley. His family name adorns a car showroom in Lancaster, where the family once owned the Bailrigg Manor hall and estate, sold to Lancaster city council in 1961, to provide the university site.

Sir John-he was knighted in 1960—is vice-chairman of the Northern Commercial Vehicles Group, and chairman of Alfresco Garages, a Bradford firm.

Since 1951, he has been chairman of Preston Conservative Association Finance Committee and, since 1958, chairman of the Preston North constituency •Conservative Association.

A few years_ago, however, Bilsborrow Hall changed hands. The new owner was John E. Hensher, director of Leylux, a Chorley upholstered furniture: firm established in 1966, which is a subsidiary of Hensher (Furniture Traders) Ltd., a combine with a number of companies in London and elsewhere, including one in Barbados.

$153,834 The £100,000 paid to Hensher for Bilsborrow Hall represents quite a handsome profit on the property.

It is not the end of public expenditure on this project, either. To make Bilsborrow Hall suitable accommodation for two judges, a further £50,000 will be spent on it.

Added to this, £3,834 is to be spent on furniture and furnishings.

The total of public money to be spent on lodgings for two judges, therefore, is £153,834.

That is, providing it is only for two. To accommodate a third judge, the government envisages that it will be necessary to build an extension, at £60,000.

This is the government that has taken milk away from school - children, instructed Social Security officials to tighten up on the unemployed, and is refusing pay increases to hospital workers, civil servants and gasmen.

But quite clearly, it is unfair to call the Tories tight-fisted. At Bilsborrow Hall they have been quite free with the taxpayers' money.