HL Deb 10 May 1923 vol 54 cc90-1

Leave out Clause 2.

[This clause, which was inserted in the Bill in Select Committee of the House of Lords, was as follows:—

Corporation to purchase certain lands and works in Chapeltown.

2.—(1) As from the twenty-fourth day of June one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three, the Wortley Rural District Council (in this section called "the District Council") shall sell, and the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Sheffield (in this section called "the Corporation") shall purchase, the lands, premises, works, tanks, mains, pipes and apparatus used by the District Council for or in connection with the supply of water by them in the Chapeltown Special Drainage District (hereinafter referred to as "the said lands and works") together with the benefit of and subject to all contracts and agreements relating thereto, and on the said date the said lands and works shall vest in the Corporation.

(2) The price to be paid for the said lands and works shall be such as may be determined by agreement between the District Council and the Corporation or failing agreement by an arbitrator to be appointed on the application of either party by the Minister of Health and subject thereto the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1889. shall apply to any such arbitration. If the said price shall not be paid on or before the twenty-fourth day of June one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three the Corporation shall pay to the District Council interest thereon at the rate of five per centum per annum from that date until the payment thereof.

(3) From and after the twenty-fourth day of June one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three the District Council shall cease to supply water within the Chapeltown Special Drainage District and as from the said date the Agreements dated respectively the fourteenth day of October one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight and the twenty-first day of December one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven made between the Company of Proprietors of the Sheffield Waterworks and the Guardians of the Poor for the Wortley Union shall be cancelled except for the purpose of recovering charges accrued due thereunder.]

THE EARL OF ONSLOW

My Lords, I beg to move that the Commons Amendment be agreed to. Perhaps I ought to give a word of explanation in case any noble Lord who was not sitting on the Committee of your Lordships that examined the Bill should desire to know something more about it. A Petition was entered against the Bill by the Wortley Rural District Council. Opposition was withdrawn on the introduction of Clause 2, but in another place it was held that the clause was technically outside the scope of the Bill. An agreement has been arrived at and embodied in a formal undertaking, the effect of which is that the Wortley Rural District Council acquiesces in the Bill being passed without this clause in reliance upon the Sheffield Corporation undertaking to apply next Session for powers to take over the Chapeltown water supply on the terms specified in the abandoned clause.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(The Earl of Onslow.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.