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Lords Amendment No. 137: In page 64, line 25, at end insert new Clause "O":
O.—(1) Section 153 of the principal Act (power of Minister of Transport to make orders authorising the stopping up or diversion of highways in order to enable development to be carried out) shall be amended in accordance with this section.
(2) The power conferred on the Minister of Transport by section 153(1) of the principal Act to make an order authorising the stopping-up or diversion of a highway, where he is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in order to enable development to be carried out as mentioned in that subsection, shall, in the case of a footpath or bridleway, be exercisable also by the Minister of Housing and Local Government where that Minister is so satisfied; and the Minister of Transport shall not make an order under that subsection in the case of a footpath or bridleway unless, at the time when he first publishes notice of the order in
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accordance with section 154(1) of the principal Act, it appears to him to be necessary for the said purpose also to authorise the stopping-up or diversion of some other highway, not being a footpath or bridleway.
(3) Subsection (2) of the said section 153 shall not apply to an order made thereunder by the Minister of Housing and Local Government; but an order so made may make such provision as appears to the Minister to he necessary or expedient for the creation of an alternative highway for use as a replacement for the one authorised by the order to be stopped up or diverted, or for the improvement of an existing highway for such use.
(4) In relation to an order made by the Minister of Housing and Local Government under section 153 of the principal Act subsection (3) of that section and section 154 of the Act (procedure and publicity for orders under section 153) shall apply with the substitution of references to that Minister for references to the Minister of Transport; and in subsections (4) and (5) of section 153 references to the latter shall be construed as including references to the former.
(5) In section 32 of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 (power of Minister of Transport to make temporary stopping-up or diversion order in connection with surface working of minerals),—
(6) In this Act, 'footpath' and 'bridleway' have the same meanings as in the Highways Act 1959.
(7) Nothing in this section applies to or affects an order made by the Minister of Transport before the commencement of this section or an order with respect to which he has, before that commencement, published in the London Gazette the notice required by section 154(1) of the principal Act.
(8) This section shall not apply to Wales.
§ Read a Second time.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
The Clause is a long one. It transfers from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government the power to make orders under section 153 of the principal Act. We have had a good deal of discussion about this in connection with both the Countryside Act and this Bill. The Clause honours an undertaking we gave to the House, and the understanding that 1501 Recommendation 6 of the Gosling Committee should be covered in the Bill. The Clause provides for the total transfer.
I hope that no hon. Member will ask me to explain the subsections, although I am prepared to do so if so requested.
§ Mr. ChannonThe hon. Gentleman is quite right in saying that we have had considerable discussions about Ministerial functions in regard to footpaths and bridleways at earlier stages of the debates on this Bill and the Countryside Act, and I will not weary the House by asking him to explain the various provisions of the new Clause.
While it remains our view that the Government's handling of the Gosling Report has been a disgraceful way of treating that Committee and the House, it would be ungracious not to thank the Government for accepting the wishes of both sides of the House and the Gosling Committee in agreeing to the transfer of Ministerial functions in this way.
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman for taking on this onerous duty, and we hope that he will not find it too troublesome in the future. If he does, I am sure that his hon. Friend in the Department, with his great interest in footpaths and bridle-ways, will be the cause.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Lords Amendment No. 138: In page 64, line 29, leave out "had".
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this Amendment, I suggest that we take Lords Amendments Nos. 139 and 141.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonNo. 138 is simply drafting. No. 139 is a paving Amendment to No. 141. Clause 77 provides powers whereby the procedure for making orders for stopping up and diverting highways may be altered so as to enable, in certain circumstances, concurrent consideration of applications for planning permission and of proposals for the stopping up or diverting of a highway if it is necesary to close the highway in order that the related development may take place.
The effect of the Amendment is to extend subsection (2) of Clause 77 by 1502 the provisions in (a) and (b). I think that these will be found to be useful.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.
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Lords Amendment No. 140: In page 64, line 41, after "undertakers" insert:
or the National Coal Board".
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
It adds the National Coal Board after "undertakers", because, for certain purposes, the Board is not a statutory undertaker, although it has been considered to be in certain provisions of the Planning Acts.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.
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Lords Amendment No. 142: In page 65, line 15, leave out subsection (4) and insert:
(4) In this section 'the responsible Minister' means, except in relation to Wales,—
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
It might be convenient to take Lords Amendment No. 144 at the same time.
These are little more than drafting Amendments which make clear the position as to the responsible Ministers in regard to this part of the Bill.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Lords Amendment No. 143: In page 65, line 18, leave out "given" and insert "granted".
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
The correct word to use here is "granted", and not "given".
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.
1503§ Lords Amendment No. 145: In page 65, line 31, leave out subsections (2) to (4).
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerIt might be convenient to take with this Lords Amendment No. 152.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonNo. 145 is a paving Amendment to the new Clause, which does two things. It brings together the existing material, which is Clause 78, about the conversion of highways into footpaths and bridleways, and supplements it with certain machinery provisions.
The general principle of what has been done in Clause 78 to provide for the making of these orders or the right to compensation has not been altered.
The subsections are clear, and I will not explain them unless the House desires, except to say that subsection (3) contains arrangements for permitting the use of specified vehicles or descriptions of vehicles which may be necessary in an emergency—fire engines, for example—even though the right of way becomes a pedestrian right of way rather than any other kind. Subsections 5 and 6 relate to compensation where people having an interest in land may be affected. Their position is safeguarded by those provisions.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.
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Lords Amendment No. 150: In page 66, line 13, at end insert:
( ) In section 32(3) of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 (rights of statutory undertakers in respect of their apparatus where order made under section 153 of principal Act), after the reference to the said section 153 there shall be inserted an alternative reference to this section.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
Where a highway is stopped up or diverted under Section 153 of the 1962 Act, the rights of statutory undertakers in respect of apparatus in the land over which the highway ran can be extin- 1504 guished under Section 32(3) of the Mineral Workings Act, 1951.
The Amendment applies the power additionally in the case of highways stopped up or diverted under Clause 78.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.