§ Colonel RAWSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he would state how many rural parish and rural district councils had applied, under Section 19, of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1907, for compulsory powers to order the making up of roads which had become dangerous or a nuisance; and, having regard to the fact that nearly all such applications had been refused and other districts thus discouraged from applying, whether he would, with a view to the convenience of the residents in such districts, consider the advisability of giving more favourable consideration in future to these applications?
§ The PRESIDENT of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. John Burns)I have received formal applications from forty-one rural district councils for Orders declaring Section 19 of the Act referred to to be in force in the district. Parish councils are not empowered to make applications under the Act. The Section is not generally applicable to the circumstances of a rural district, and, in view of Sub-section (4), the powers of the Section should not, I think, be conferred upon a rural district council, except where the enactments referred to in the Sub-section are already in force.