HC Deb 28 June 1910 vol 18 cc823-4
Mr. CHARLES BATHURST

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention had been called to the circumstances under which the Alnwick Rural District Council recently issued an Order under Section 17 (2) of The Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909, for the closing of certain premises known as Wellhope Cottage, Edlingham, in the county of Northumberland, the property of Sir John Swinburne, as being unfit for human habitation; whether, on appeal to the Board against such Order and after a public inquiry by the Board's inspector, Mr. W. H. Collin, the Board decided that such closing Order was inequitable and must be quashed, but that the appellant must bear his own costs of the appeal to the Board, although successful; and whether, having regard to the fact that such costs amounted to £80, that the proceedings of the district council were shown after due inquiry to be unjustifiable, and that under Section 39 of the above Act there was no appeal to any judicial tribunal against the award of the Board as regarded costs, the Board would reconsider their decision, so as not to put the owner of the premises in a worse position than he was before such proceedings were taken?

Mr. BURNS

I carefully considered the circumstances of the case referred to before giving my decision on the appeal. I also considered fully the question of the costs stated to have been incurred by the appellant in connection with his appeal, and came to the conclusion that there was no reason for departing from the general principle laid down in the Rules applicable to appeals to the Board under the Act of 1909 in regard to the payment of the costs of parties. I see no reason to reconsider my decision. I must not be assumed to admit that the question accurately states the amount of the costs incurred by the appellant in connection with the appeal.

Mr. C. BATHURST

Is it not entirely contrary to the principle of equity and also to ordinary judicial procedure in this country that a successful defendant should have to pay his own costs?

Mr. SPEAKER

That is a question for His Majesty's judges rather than for the President of the Local Government Board.