HC Deb 25 October 1972 vol 843 cc1251-2

Lords Amendment: No. 321, in page 135, leave out lines 36 to 47 and insert: (7) The Secretary of State may by regulations empower district councils, in relation to highways in respect of which their powers of maintenance under subsection (2) above are exercisable, to exercise subject to such terms and conditions as may be specified in the regulations such additional powers as appear to him—

  1. (a)to be appropriate to supplement powers of maintenance; and
  2. (b) to correspond to powers exercisable in relation to highways by highway authorities;
and accordingly in this section (other than this subsection), in Schedule 20 to this Act and in any other enactment referring to the powers of district councils under subsection (2) above, the expressions "maintenance" and "maintain", where used with respect to the powers of district councils under subsection (2) above, shall be construed as extending to the carrying out of operations in the exercise of powers conferred on district councils by regulations under this subsection; and a statutory instrument containing any such regulations shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

Mr. Speed

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

The Amendment substitutes a new subsection for subsection (7) of the Clause. Both the present and the proposed new subsection relate to the powers of district councils to undertake the maintenance of unclassified urban roads as defined in subsection (8) of the Clause.

The new subsection (7) provides that regulations made by the Secretary of State may empower district councils to exercise powers which appropriately supplement powers of maintenance and which correspond to powers exercisable in relation to highways by highway authorities.

The subsection provides also that the expressions "maintenance" and "maintain", when used in relation to the powers of district councils to maintain unclassified urban roads, shall include operations which district councils are entitled to carry out under regulations made by the Secretary of State. Regulations made under the subsection by the Secretary of State are subject to the negative resolution procedure.

The Amendment is necessary to ensure that district councils have the powers to carry out all the maintenance functions which they may be entitled to exercise under regulations made by the Secretary of State and that the Secretary of State has power to limit those powers appropriately. In other words, the Amendment enables the Secretary of State slightly to extend the terms "maintenance" and "maintain" so that they do not simply cover literally filling in potholes, although I assure the House that land acquisition is certainly not involved. It is an extension so as to cover rather more than the narrow concept of "maintenance" might imply. It is of fairly small import, but it gives the district councils that will have these powers for urban unclassified roads a slightly more interesting, a slightly more commonsense and a slightly more cost-effective way of doing their job of maintenance.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.

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