HC Deb 31 May 1951 vol 488 cc501-3
Mr. Lindgren

I beg to move, in page 3, line 37, after "area," to insert: (whether a new contravention or a repetition or continuation of one already occurred or occurring). In Committee, my right hon. Friend promised to re-examine Clause 3 (1) in order to make sure that river boards were able to take action under it and apply for a court order, not only to prevent apprehended future pollution but to regulate discharges which had polluted or were polluting a stream. The Amendment is designed to fulfil that undertaking.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. Lindgren

I beg to move, in page 4, line 4, to leave out from the beginning, to the end of line 19, and to insert: (2) For the purposes of the proviso to subsection (6) and of subsection (8) of the last foregoing section, an order made against a person under subsection (1) of this section shall be treated as a conviction of an offence punishable under that section, and any contravention by him of subsection (1) of that section shown to have been, or to have been wholly or partly due to, a contravention of or failure to comply with the order shall be treated as a repetition or continuation of that offence by him. This is a drafting Amendment, and is consequential upon an Amendment that we have already agreed to.

Mr. Nugent

Here again there may be consequential Amendments. Could it be accepted subject to that consideration?

Mr. Lindgren

That is, of course accepted.

Amendment agreed to.

Mr. Dalton

I beg to move, in page 4, line 34, at the end, to insert: (5) A river board shall, at the request of any person appearing to them to be interested in any land, and at his expense, furnish him or such other person as may be specified in the request with such particulars as may be so specified of any orders made under subsection (1) of this section with respect to any stream in their area, being orders about any use or proposed use of that land or otherwise material to its use. In Committee an Amendment was moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucestershire, West (Mr. Philips Price) to provide that a court order obtained to restrain pollution from a particular riparian owner's premises, should be registered as a local land charge. We were not in favour of that. We pointed out that the Land Charges Register is already overburdened with entries for which it was not originally intended, and that the principal effect of registration would be to make a purchaser of those premises, if he were guilty of substantially the same offence as contemplated in the order, liable for the higher penalties applicable to a repeated offence. We did not think that that was quite fair.

We did not like my hon. Friend's Amendment, but the Committee were anxious that something should be done on this point and this Amendment seeks to meet their wishes. It is designed to secure that persons with a legal interest in riparian land may find out whether court orders have been made in respect of either their own premises, or others abutting on any stream in the area, which might affect the way in which they may wish to use their property. They will be secure by having access to the register. The Amendment imposes on river boards, who are the authorities responsible, the duty of keeping available details of court orders relating to pollution. We do not want to put an impossible burden on the authorities, and therefore the river boards are to be responsible for supplying only such information as they are asked to provide and they are also to be entitled to charge for the work entailed.

Mr. Philips Price

I thank my right hon. Friend for going some way towards meeting the Amendment which I put down in Committee, but his Amendment only partially meets my point. The difficulty is that the purchasers of land on the bank of a river, or their solicitors, may not know about this new procedure, whereas my proposal was that these things should be automatically registered with the local authority under the Land Charges Act so that any solicitor dealing with the purchase of land would automatically go to the local authority to get the information. I still maintain that that is the better way, but maybe my right hon. Friend is right.

Mr. Dalton

They can still go to the local authority under this provision.

Mr. Philips Price

Yes, but these things will not be registered with the local authority under the Land Charges Act. If that is not possible owing to complications in administration, this Amendment certainly goes some way towards meeting me, and I am thankful to my right hon. Friend for that.

Amendment agreed to.