HC Deb 22 July 1897 vol 51 cc799-802

Whenever any watercourse, ditch, gutter, or drain along the side of any street, or between or parallel to rows of dwelling houses, shall be used or partly used for the conveyance of any water, sewage, or other liquid or matter from any premises, and cannot in the opinion of the local authority be rendered free from foulness or offensive smell without the laying down of a sewer or of some other structure, such local authority shall and they are hereby required to lay down such sewer or other structure within the limits of their district, or, where necessary for the purpose of outfall or distribution of sewage, without their district, and to keep the same in good and serviceable repair; and they may enter any premises for such purposes, and use such part thereof as shall be necessary, and for such use shall pay such damages as may be assessed by the sheriff on a summary application, and to such party as the sheriff may direct: Provided always, that no damage stall be payable to any person who has caused or contributed to cause such watercourse, ditch, gutter, or drain to become foul or offensive, unless such person shall satisfy the sheriff that he had justifiable excuse for so doing, and such local authority are hereby authorised and empowered to assess the owners of all the premises (according to the yearly value thereof) from which then or at any time thereafter any material other than pure water flows, falls, or is carried into the said sewer or other structure, for payment of all expenses incurred in making and maintaining the same, and that either in one sum or in instalments, as they shall think just and reasonable, and after fourteen days' notice at the least left with the said owners, if resident within the district, and if not so resident with the occupiers of the said premises, to levy and collect the sums so assessed, with the same remedies in case of default in payment thereof as are herein-after provided with reference to the public health general assessment leviable under this Act.

Amendment made: After the words "limits of their district, or "insert "subject to the approval of the Board." (Lord Advocate.)

Clause 32,—

OFFENSIVE TRADES — PROHIBITION OR REGULATION OF CERTAIN OFFENSIVE BUSINESSES, AND BYELAWS AS TO OFFENSIVE BUSINESSES.

  1. (1.) If any person after the commencement of this Act establishes, without the sanction of the local authority, the following businesses, or any of them; that is to say, the business of blood boiler, bone boiler, manure manufacturer, soap boiler, tallow melter, knacker, tanner, tripe boiler, gut or tripe cleaner, skinner or hide factor, slaughterer of cattle or horses, or any other business which the local authority may declare by order confirmed by the Board and published in the Edinburgh Gazette to be an offensive business, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds in respect of the establishment thereof, and any person carrying on the same after a conviction for the establishment thereof shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five pounds for every day during which he so carries on the same:
  2. (2.) The local authority shall give their sanction by order; but, at least fourteen days before making any such order, shall make public the application for it, by advertising in one or more local newspapers, or by the posting of handbills in the locality, setting forth the time and place at which they will be willing to hear all persons objecting to the order, and they shall consider any objections made at that time and place, and shall grant or withhold their sanction as they think expedient, and where the local authority grants or withholds such sanction, any person aggrieved may appeal to the Board, whose decision shall be final, but, in the case of a district other than a burgh, the appeal to the Board shall only arise after the county council has given its determination on the matter, and a local authority may appeal to the Board against the determination of the county council.
  3. (3.) The local authority may make byelaws for regulating the conduct of any businesses within the meaning of this section, and of Section thirty-seven of this Act, winch are for the time being lawfully carried on in their district, and the structure of the premises in which any such business is being carried on, in order to prevent or diminish the noxious or injurious effect thereof, and the mode in which time said application is to be made.
    4. 801
  4. (4.) Any such byelaw may, in addition to any pecuniary penalty imposed by such byelaw, empower a sheriff by summary order to deprive any person, either temporarily or permanently, of the right of carrying on any business to which such byelaw relates, as a punishment for breaking the same, and any person disobeying such order shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five pounds for every day during which such disobedience continues; and the decision of the sheriff under this subsection shall be appealable to the Lord Ordinary on the in manner provided by Section one hundred and fifty-five of this Art.
  5. (5.) There shall be charged for an order of the local authority under this section, such fee not exceeding forty shillings, as the local authority may fix.
  6. (6.) For the purposes of this section a business shall be deemed to be established after the commencement of this Act not only if it is established newly, but also if it is removed from any one set of premises to any other premises, or if it is renewed on the same set of premises after having been discontinued for a period of twelve months or upwards, or if any premises on which it is for the time being carried on are enlarged without the sanction of the local authority; but a business shall not be deemed to be established anew on any premises by reason only that the ownership or occupancy of such premises is wholly or partially changed, or that the building in which it is established having been wholly or partially pulled down or burnt down has been reconstructed without any extension of its area.

Amendment made: In Sub-section (4) leave out "fifty-five" and insert "fifty-six."—(Lord Advocate.)

MR. BRYCE

moved in Sub-section (6) to leave out "without the sanction of the local authority." He said that these words, if retained, would have the effect of preventing the local authority from having any power of dealing with an offensive trade where carried on in premises which had been enlarged. It might be said that if the premises were enlarged for that purpose, that was equvalent to the sanction of the local authority having been obtained. But the premises might be enlarged without the attention of the local authority being directed to the fact and yet with the intention of carrying on the trade on so large a scale as to amount to a nuisance. He thought it would be better to require that a person who was going to enlarge the premises for that purpose should obtain the sanction of the local authority. If he simply obtained sanction to enlarge, and did not bring to the attention of the local authority the fact that he intended to enlarge his trade, the local authority might be prevented from acting at all.

*THE LORD ADVOCATE

said that if he could be quite certain that all judges would take the same view as his right hon. Friend he would have no objection to the Amendment, but he could not be certain. Therefore he thought that the omission of the words would place the manufacturer in a perilous position. If the premises were enlarged without the sanction of the local authority, it would be a new business, but if they were enlarged with the sanction of the local authority, it would not a new business. It might happen that after giving a sanction to enlarge, the local authority would not sanction the trade. Therefore he thought the Bill was safer as it stood.

MR. BRYCE

said his proposition was that a provisional application to enlarge would not be merely au application to enlarge premises, but an application to enlarge for the purpose of carrying on the business; in which case the argument of the Lord Advocate would not apply. However, he would not put the House to the trouble of a Division.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 34,—