§ MR. JESSE COLLINGS (Birmingham, Bordesley)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether the Sanitary Authority for the Midsomer Norton District have recently taken land for allotments under the provisions of "The Allotments Act, 1887;" whether the Surveyor to the Sanitary Authority refused to survey the land for allotments although directed to do so by the Allotments Sub-Committee of the Board, and whether, as a consequence, the land has lain unoccupied for six months, and additional expenditure has been incurred by employing another Surveyor; and whether this additional expenditure, together with the rent for the six months during which the land has been idle, is now to be charged to the allotment holders?
§ * MR. RITCHIEI have received a communication from the Midsomer Norton Local Board in which it is stated that the terms of taking some of the land acquired by the Authority for allotments were only agreed to on January 20th last. The making and publishing of bye-laws which regulate lettings necessarily occupied some time. At the last meeting of the Local Board on the 17th inst. the Secretary to the managers delivered a plan of the allotments, the cost of which was £2 2s., and recommended the Authority to let the land at4½d. per perch, at which price offers had been obtained for the whole, or nearly all, of the allotments. The rent offered was deemed satisfactory, and agreed to.
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSI beg to ask the hon. Member for Penrith (Mr. J. W. Lowther) whether he is aware that the Trustees of the Broughall Charity Estate have recently set out land for allotments under the provisions of "The Allotments Extension Act, 1882," for which they are demanding six months' rent in advance, although the land is in an uncultivated state, and compelling the men to sign agreements by which their tenancy may be determined at a month's notice, terminating with any year of their tenancy; and whether the Charity 1816 Commissioners will take any action in the matter?
MR. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)The Trustee of the Broughall Charity Estate has recently set out land for allotments under the provisions of the Allotments Extension Act, 1882. The Trustee proposed that the allotment holders should pay six months' rent in advance, and that the tenancy should be determinable at the end of any year of tenancy by one month's previous notice on either side; but he is willing to modify the agreement in both these particulars. The Charity Commissioners will inform the Trustee that the period for which rent is demanded in advance must not exceed three months, and that the notice for terminating the tenancy must be in conformity with the provisions of Section 110 of the Enclosure Act, 1845, and Section 33 of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883.