RIGHTS OF OWNERS AND OCCUPIERS TO CONNECT WITH AND DRAIN INTO PUBLIC SEWERS, ETC. (Hansard, 17 July 1968)

§ Mr. Buchan

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Again, there may be points here which particularly affect hon. Members, so that it might be convenient to discuss, at the 1606 same lime, Lords Amendments No. 4, in Clause 14, page 8, line 7, leave out from beginning to "who" in line 8 and insert "appeal to the Secretary of State"; No. 5, in Clause 14, page 8, leave out line 10; No. 6, in Clause 14, page 8, line 34, leave out "£50" and insert "£25"; and No. 7 in Clause 17, page 10, line 32, leave out from "them" to end of line 33.

Amendments Nos. 3 and 7 are basically drafting Amendments which delete unnecessary words in Clauses 12 and 17, each of which provides for an appeal to the Secretary of State, and the words which we propose to delete in both cases say that his decision is final. But of course the procedure for appeals to the Secretary of State is laid down in Clause 51 of the print which we are considering, subsection (5) of which says that the decision of the Secretary of State on appeal is final. It is, therefore, unnecessary to say so in Clauses 12 and 17.

The remaining Amendments are minor ones to bring to the provisions of Clauses 12 and 14 more closely into line. Each of the Clauses confers on the local authority powers of control to be exercised when someone proposes to connect a private sewer or drain to the public system. The two Clauses were not originally linked, but a fairly close connection was established as a result of Amendments made to Clause 14 on Report in this House. This was mainly on the initiative of the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West (Mr. Stodart). Discrepancies between similar provisions of the two Clauses are therefore undesirable and in that sense the Amendments are consequential.

Clause 12(5) provides for an appeal to the Secretary of State where an owner of premises who has applied for permission to connect his private drain or sewer to the public system is aggrieved by the local authority's decision or by any condition attached to it. Under Clause 14, if he is ordered to construct a drain, private sewer or private sewage works in a particular fashion, his appeal is to the sheriff. There should not be appeal to different authorities on different aspects of what might essentially be similar things which we have now linked in this way. We therefore propose that both appeals should lie to the Secretary of State and the first two Amendments provide for this.

1607 Clause 12(8) provides for a penalty not exceeding £25 for making an unauthorised connection of a drain or private sewer to a public sewer, and under Clause 14 the penalty for constructing such work is £50. Because we have linked the two Clauses, we think that the penalty in both cases should be £25, which would bring together the two views expressed in Committee.