HL Deb 30 March 1903 vol 120 cc537-8

[THIRD READING.]

Order of the day for the Third Reading read.

LORD MONKSWELL

My Lords, I should like to say one word before this Bill is read a third time. I do not propose to offer any opposition to the Third Reading, but I should like to state that the Select Committee who passed the Bill did a thing which is not at all usual—they set aside the public law in favour of a private owner and decided that, although under a public law a private owner was not entitled to build on his land, still the circumstances were such that the public law might be set aside in this case. The Bill excited a good deal of observation on the part of various societies, among others the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, of which my noble friend the Earl of Meath is President, and petitions against the Bill were lodged by the Corporation of the City of London, as well as by the London County Council. What I would suggest is that the action of the Select Committee with regard to this Bill should not be considered in any way as a precedent in favour of setting aside the public law on behalf of private individuals. This particular instance is not at all a flagrant one. The ground that it is proposed to allow the owner to build over is a very small piece, and I am not at all sure that it would be particularly valuable as a public open space, but I am sorry the noble Earl the Chairman of the Select Committee is not here to give some explanation of the reasons which induced his Committee to act in the way they did with regard to this Bill.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF MORLEY)

My Lords, I did not know that my hon. friend intended making any remarks on this Bill, otherwise I would have looked into the matter more carefully than I have done. I am not prepared to go into the details of the matter, and how far the Open Spaces Act of 1887 was contravened by the Committee, but I feel quite certain that my hon. friend, Lord Dartrey, who presided over the Committee, considered all these matters very carefully. I am glad the noble Earl does not intend to oppose the Bill, and I quite agree with him that these are matters that should be carefully considered when they come before Parliament. This particular case affects a very small bit of land, and I understand that beyond the protest he has made, the noble Earl does not oppose the Bill.

Bill read 3a and passed, and sent to the Commons.