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Lords Amendment: No. 10, in page 51, line 18, at end insert:
() The powers of the Corporation under sub-paragraph (1) above shall include power to erect in any street one or more structures for housing pressure governors, but only with the consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, of the highway authority or other person having the control or management of the street.
Any question whether or not consent to the erection of such a structure is unreasonably withheld shall be determined by arbitration; and for the purposes of this sub-paragraph, the withholding of consent shall, to the extent that it is based on the ground that the structure ought to be erected elsewhere than in a street, be treated as unreasonable if the Corporation show either that there is no reasonably practicable alternative to erecting it in a street, or that all such alternatives would, on the balance of probabilities, involve greater danger to life or property.
§ Mr. EmeryI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
It implements an undertaking that I gave in Committee when the Opposition moved an Amendment to permit the Gas Corporation to erect in streets structures for housing pressure governors, otherwise known as governor kiosks.
1096 Pressure governors are apparatus for regulating the flow and reducing the pressure of gas, especially to the low pressures appropriate for final distribution or supply to the consumer. They are essential in regulating from main line supply to consumer supply. A considerable number of governors have already been installed by the gas industry, and a number of these structures have been erected. However, some doubt has arisen as to the industry's power to erect these structures in streets, and clarification is desirable. This is what the Amendment secures. I am grateful to the Opposition for the discussion they inspired in Committee.
§ Question put and agreed to.