HC Deb 14 February 1940 vol 357 cc896-8

10.18 p.m.

Mr. W. Roberts

I beg to move, in page 14, line 26, at the end, to add: (2) The council of any county may order any occupier of agricultural land who had neglected the proper cleansing or repair of any tile drains on his land to clean or repair them, and if he fails to comply with any such order the council may execute any work for the purpose that they deem requisite, and recover the cost thereof from the occupier. The position is that a county council can compel a man to clean out the ditches or other drains passing through his property the neglect of which causes damage to other owners. That is a natural principle, but my Amendment makes it possible under war-time conditions to compel an occupier of agricultural land to clean out the drains which may be reducing the productivity of his land. The county council has various powers of dealing, for instance, with rabbits or injurious weeds, and can compel a man to destroy the rabbits or cut injurious weeds on his farm. I suggest that in war time if occupiers neglect the drains on the land, and thereby reduce its productivity it should be possible to coerce them into keeping their land in a proper way. This is a very small point, and may not affect a great many farms, but I think it would be a useful additional power which a county council might well have at the present time.

10.22 p.m.

Sir E. Shepperson

Although I have much sympathy with the hon. Member, I sincerely hope that the Committee will not accept his Amendment, for the simple reason that this tile drainage may have been done 10 or 20 years ago, and how does he think an occupier is going to find the tile drainage?

10.23 p.m.

Mr. Ramsbotham

The point which the hon. Member for North Cumberland (Mr. W. Roberts) has in mind is already covered under existing legislation, and the war agricultural committees have power under the Defence Regulations to require the occupier of agricultural land to attend not only to the field drains on his land but also to any ditches in which the field drains may run. I suggest that on the whole this Amendment is unnecessary, and indeed the point is already better covered than it would be by the Amendment. Further, the county councils in a good many cases have handed their staffs over to the war agricultural committees, and it would in those circumstances be a great embarrassment to place on them the duty of doing this work.

10.24 p.m.

Mr. T. Williams

Might I ask whether the war agricultural executive committees have been warned that this duty falls upon them, and, if so, can the right hon. Gentleman tell the Committee what instructions or guidance the war executive committees hand to the district committees, whose job it would be to fulfil this function if it was not fulfilled by the war executive committees?

Mr. Ramsbotham

I cannot say whether there has been any specific instruction to the committees.

Mr. Williams

The First Commissioner will forgive me, but he knows as well as I do that the district committees represent areas almost equivalent to rural dis- trict areas. The members of a committee include four farmers in the area. Some of them may be landowners as well as occupiers, and some may be merely tenants. Since those four farmers are the only people who act as agents for the county executives, unless specific directions are given to them it is safe to assume that this work will not be undertaken by them. Clearly, if the Minister expects the county agricultural executives to interpret fully and faithfully all that devolves upon them he expects a great deal. If he feels disposed to accept the Amendment and if he thinks that the county executives have this obligation resting upon them, he should at least take steps to intimate that it is their duty to see that the ditches and dykes are carefully drained in all parts of the area looked after by them.

Mr. Ramsbotham

If the hon. Gentleman will make his remarks to the Minister of Agriculture he will see whether it is necessary to make this information more widely known.

Mr. W. Roberts

I would ask the Minister for his explanation. It is not widely known that the war agricultural executives have this power, and it would be valuable if the Minister took this step to see that they knew it. In view of what the Minister has said, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.