HC Deb 20 August 1909 vol 9 cc1740-1

(1) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade that the occupier of any premises is desirous of obtaining a supply of electricity from any undertakers within whose area of supply those premises are not situate, the Board of Trade may, if the local authority within whose district the premises are situate, and the undertakers (if any) authorised to supply electricity to such premises, consent, by order permit the first-mentioned undertakers to give a supply to those premises on such terms and subject to such conditions as the Board think fit:

Provided that, if in the opinion of the Board of Trade any consent required by this sub-section is unreasonably withheld, the Board of Trade may proceed as if such consent had been given.

(2) An Order given by the Board of Trade under this section may for the purpose of enabling a supply to be given thereunder confer any such powers and impose any such duties on the undertakers as would have been conferred or imposed by the Electric Lighting Acts and as might have been conferred or imposed by Provisional Order if the premises and the route along which lines are to be laid for the purpose of giving the supply were within the area of supply of the undertakers, anything in the special Act or Order relating to the undertaking to the contrary notwithstanding.

(3) If the undertakers on whom powers are conferred by an Order under this section are not a local authority, the works and lines erected and laid under the powers so conferred shall, so long as the Order remains in force, be deemed, for the purposes of the provisions as to purchase applicable to the undertaking, to form part of the undertaking within the district of the local authority which comprises the area of supply of the undertakers, or, if that area is comprised within the districts of more than one local authority, within such of those districts as the Board of Trade may determine.

Mr. SCOTT DICKSON moved, at the end of the Clause, to insert the following new Section:—

"(4) Nothing in this section shall enable the Board of Trade, without the consent of the undertakers within whose area of supply the premises are situate, to give such permission as aforesaid to any undertakers where the last-mentioned undertakers are by any Act of Parliament specifically prohibited from supplying electricity within the area of the first-mentioned undertakers."

Mr. H. J. TENNANT

I accept the Amendment.

Question, "That those words be there added," put, and agreed to.