§ 6.15 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. John Hay)I beg to move, in page 144, line 41, to leave out from "the" to the end of line 43 and to insert:
words 'the authority' there shall be inserted the words 'or, in the case of any area in Greater London, either the local authority or the highway authority for either of the streets in question (not being the Minister)'.(2) In section 252 (2) after the word 'authority' there shall be inserted the words 'or highway authority'.The Amendment puts into effect the general intention which lay behind an Amendment tabled by hon. Members opposite to Schedule 6 in Standing Committee, which we agreed to accept in principle but which unfortunately we did not have time to discuss. The position is that Section 152 (1) of the Highways Act, 1959, as amended by the Bill in the form in which it left the Standing Committee, enables all local authorities to require the corners of new buildings at corners of streets to be rounded off or splayed out. In Greater London these powers will be available to London boroughs and to the City, but they will not be available to the Greater London Council because that council will not be a local authority for that purpose.It would be some advantage if we were to give the Greater London Council as a highway authority these powers to round off the corners of new buildings at the junctions of Metropolitan roads for which the Greater London Council is the highway authority. I think that this is all I need say to explain the technical point, but we were happy when it was raised by the Opposition and we are glad to do something about it at even this late stage.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Schedule, as amended, agreed to.