§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 3a." (Lord Kenyon.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ LORD ARMSTRONGMy Lords, I beg to move the Amendment standing in my name. This is a Bill for confirming, among others, an Order of the Local Government Board for extending the boundaries of the city of Newcastle so as to include certain urban and rural districts. This Order will come into operation on 9th November, and, as the Order now stands, from 19th July last up to the time of the Order coming into operation, the present councils of the added areas can commit the Corporation of Newcastle to an unlimited expenditure. The object of my Amendment is to protect the Corporation of Newcastle from the liability of being committed during this short time that the councils of the added areas may be in existence to an unlimited expenditure which they may have had, perhaps, no opportunity of considering, or which may appear to them to be wholly unnecessary, or at any rate excessive in amount. To prove to your Lordships the justice of, and necessity for, this Amendment, I may mention that the council of one of the areas taken over resolved on 20th July, the day after the Corporation 150 by the Order takes over the responsibility for contracts made by the councils, to purchase land for the extension of a public park at a cost of between £9,000 and £10,000, and, in addition, they resolved to at once invite tenders for a sixty ton refuse destructor. I trust your Lordships will look upon this Amendment as a reasonable one for the protection of the Corporation of Newcastle, and I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
In page 26, after line 40, to insert the words 'Provided that no such contract, deed, bond, agreement, or other instrument entered into or made by either of the urban councils or the rural council after the 19th day of July, 1914, which involves or may involve the payment by the corporation of any sum or sums exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds shall be binding upon the corporation unless the same shall have been approved by them in writing or in case of difference by the Local Government Board or by some person appointed by them whose decision shall be final and binding on all parties.'"—(Lord Armstrong.)
Lord KENYONOn behalf of the Local Government Board I beg to say that there is no objection to this Amendment.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Moved, "That the Bill do now pass."—(Lord Kenyon.)
§ On Question, Bill passed accordingly and returned to the Commons