§ Question again proposed, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
§ 10.0 p.m.
§ Mr. William WellsI was saying that it would be wrong for the law to be one thing in Walsall and another in the rest of the country. There is the intervening period before Part II of the Caravan Sites Act comes into force for which provision must be made. I accept what my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary said. I only express the hope that when the Minister deals with the matter he will do so in a sense which takes account of the conditions in Walsall and that some provision will be made for containing this very difficult problem during the time that may intervene before Part II of the Caravan Sites Act comes into effect.
Though this is no defence for the wording of the Bill, I do not think that in practice my hon. Friend the Member for Dunbartonshire, East (Mr. Bence) would find any difficulty about his trailer; but I accept that the Clauses as drafted will place in a very grave predicament a passerby in Walsall who happens to have a caravan with him. I do not defend the Clauses as they stand. Much of the Bill's drafting must be put right, and of no part of the Bill is this more true than of Clauses 112, 116 and 117.
The Bill is necessary to bring up to date the Private Bill legislation in relation to the reconstituted Borough of Walsall. The borough had five years after the West Midlands Order was made to 607 put this side of its house in order. It has not much time left. It is urgently necessary for it to proceed. Even the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Lubbock) will concede that much of what is in these Bills is desirable in principle. Let the Bill have its Second Reading and be revised in Committee. Then, if necessary, the House can look again at the Bill as a whole when it comes up for Third Reading.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed.