POST OFFICE SITES BILL. (Hansard, 12 May 1903)

§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN

, in moving the Second Reading of this Bill, said it was of the usual type enabling the Post Office to acquire certain sites for Post Office purposes. It was proposed to extend the Paddington Office, and it was hoped that they would be able to exchange the property they now held for property belonging to the Great Western Railway Company and thereby secure a great improvement in their present office. It would be necessary to acquire additional property as well. In the Bill power was asked to close parts of two streets in the 489 borough, but he had undertaken, in deference to the wishes of the Borough Council, that no part of London Street would be closed, and he would move to strike out the necessary words when the Bill was before the Hybrid Committee to which he hoped it would be referred. Under those circumstances, the Borough Council had no objection to the Bill being proceeded with, although there were a few further small points to be considered. Power was also sought in the Bill to acquire land with a river frontage in Southwark for the erection of a power station for the supply of electricity for Post Office purposes. He had been asked whether he would consider the advisability of obtaining this power from one of the existing sources of supply instead of creating a new Post Office establishment. At the present time the Post Office supplied the whole of its electricity for the Central Telegraph Office; but they had exhausted their power at that station, and they were urgently in need of further power in order to improve the telegraphic facilities for London. But since the Bill had been drafted he had reason to think, as the result of some communications he had received, it might be possible for the Post Office to make advantageous terms with one of the existing companies which would relieve him from the necessity of proceeding with this scheme. At the same time he would ask the House to give him the power which was taken in the Bill, because his chance of making any terms at all of a satisfactory kind would be reduced if it became obvious to those with whom he was dealing, that he had no option but to accept their terms. There was one further point in the Bill to which he might refer. That was the power that was asked for to build on a site purchased at Buxton, which was part of the Duke of Devonshire's estate and was sold subject to certain covenants. It was impossible now to obtain release from those covenants; and they, therefore, proposed to take the power given them in the Bill to build the Post Office on the site which had been acquired, leaving anyone who might be aggrieved to obtain compensation under the Land Clauses Act. The local authority in Buxton approached him a few months ago, and represented the need of a new 490 Post Office; and the House, having in mind the many allusions which had been made during the discussion on the Post Office estimates to the slowness of the Post Office in carrying out the provision of new buildings, would, he hoped, grant the powers asked for in this Bill, which in every case were necessary to carry on the business of the Post Office.

§ MR. CALDWELL (Lanarkshire, Mid)

said he thoroughly approved of the suggestion that it was expedient that the Post Office should erect a generating station of their own. He, however, thought before the Post Office entered into an arrangement with any particular company that tenders might be invited in a matter of this kind. In that way other companies might be brought into the field. With reference to the post office at Buxton the Postmaster-General might have told the House what the cost of the building would be. Of course, every local authority was anxious to get the Post Office to take up one of the most prominent sites in the town; that was only natural; the local authority were also anxious that the Post Office should erect as elegant a building as possible. But then another question arose. After the building had been erected on the best site, what happened? The valuation of the post offices was not dependent on the ordinary valuation, but in point of practice the same valuation was given to post offices as to private institutions. In that way Parliament was doubly hit—they were induced to take an expensive site when one further out would be equally good for postal purposes; they were then induced to erect elegant buildings, upon which they had to pay enormous local rates. He had no objection to money being spent with a good object, but he thought the Post Office should set its face against any such valuation as this in a matter of this kind.