ROADS AND BRIDGES (SCOTLAND) ACTS AMENDMENT BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 11 March 1892)

LORD BALFOUR

I ask your Lordships to allow me to move the Second Reading of this Bill on behalf of the noble Marquess the Secretary for Scotland. The matter is a very simple one, but it is one of some urgency. The existing law as to rebuilding bridges is that the building of them can only be resolved upon by the road trustees at a certain statutory meeting which is held in the month of October. Your Lordships may be aware—certainly those of your Lordships who are connected with Scotland will be aware—that in the last week of January a very disastrous flood took place over a great part of the North of Scotland by which a very large number of bridges on the roads in the counties of Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, and Sutherland were washed away—one in particular, the destruction of which has caused a very great amount of public inconvenience, was Bonar Bridge, which is very well known to your Lordships, as the main line of communication between the counties of Ross and Sutherland, and indeed between the whole of the North of Scotland, north of that, and the South. Now, my Lords, the effect of the existing statutory restriction which exists in the Roads Act, 1878, confirmed by the Local Government Act, 1889, is that, unless some relief is granted, even the most preliminary steps for rebuilding these bridges practically cannot be taken until the spring of next year; because the resolution to build and borrow money cannot be adopted till October, and of course the works cannot go on in the winter months. If the present summer is to be saved and a great public inconvenience to be got rid of, some relaxation of this provision must be devised. My Lords, the proposal in this Bill is to institute, in any case of sudden destruction of bridges, such as has taken place, a power to County Councils and Road Boards to meet and resolve upon the rebuilding of them at a special meeting held after proper notice, and by a special circular addressed to every member of these public bodies. I am informed that there is no likelihood of any opposition to this measure, that the County Councils concerned 608 have unanimously petitioned in favour of it, and the resolutions of several public meetings have been forwarded to the noble Lord, the Secretary for Scotland, asking that such a measure as this may be passed. Under these circumstances, and assuring your Lordships that it is a matter of real urgency, I hope your Lordships will consent to give the Bill a Second Reading. I beg to move accordingly.