HC Deb 25 October 1972 vol 843 cc1253-4 H.—(1) In its application outside Greater London, the Ordnance Survey Act 1841 (in this section referred to as "the 1841 Act") shall have effect subject to the following modifications. (2) An application under section 1 of the 1841 Act shall be sent to the proper officer of either a county council or a district council and, where such an application is made, the function of appointing a person to assist in examing, ascertaining and marking out reputed boundaries shall be exercisable by the council to whose proper officer the application was sent. (3) The newspapers in which copies of an application under section 1 of the 1841 Act are to be inserted shall be those circulating in the area of the council to whose proper officer the application was sent. (4) References, in whatever terms, in the 1841 Act—
  1. (a) to the justices by whom a person is appointed under section 1 of that Act shall be construed as references to the county council or the district council, as the case may require, and
  2. (b) to the clerk of the peace for a county shall be construed as references to the proper officer of the county council or the district council as the case may require.
(5) Without prejudice to section 15 of the 1841 Act (which among other things extends the meaning of the word "county" in that Act) references in that Act to a county include references to any local government area within the meaning of this Act.
Mr. Graham Page

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

The Amendment deals with the composition of the Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey Act, 1841, provides for all public boundaries to be ascertained for publication purposes by Ordnance Survey. Section 1 of the 1841 Act empowered justices in quarter sessions, on the application of the Ordnance Survey to the clerk of the peace, to appoint fit and proper persons as meresmen to ensure the adoption of the correct boundary. We learnt in the course of the Bill that there are such things as meresmen and that they are not mere men. They are the people appointed by the justices to measure the boundaries.

As a result of the Courts Act, 1971, the function performed by the clerk of the peace was transferred to the clerk of the county council. Now that we shall not have clerks of county councils because there is no statutory obligation to appoint them we must adjust the provisions. We cannot have a county appointing meresmen for the districts, so this Amendment provides that the proper officer shall make the application for the appointment of these meresmen.

Subsection (4) provides that all references in the 1841 Act to justices appointing meresmen under Section 1 should be taken as references to the county or district council, as appropriate, and that references to the clerk of the peace for a county should be taken as references to the proper officer of the county or district council, as appropriate.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.

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