PUBLIC HEALTH (MARKETS IN RURAL DISTRICTS) BILL. (Hansard, 9 July 1908)

§ *LORD ALLENDALE

My Lords, this Bill has been introduced by the Government to enable markets to be established in rural districts by rural district councils. It is a very short Bill, and I do not think it requires very much explanation. It has been brought in to a large extent in consequence of representations which have been repeatedly made to the Local Government Board by the Board of Agriculture and others interested in the agricultural districts.

Under Clause 166 of the Public Health Act of 1875 town councils and urban district councils are given power to provide a market place, construct a market house, acquire land and levy tolls for carrying on the market in their area. The town council can only do that by a vote of two-thirds of their number, and the urban district council must get the consent of the owners and ratepayers of the district before the market can be instituted. Rural district councils, however, have no direct powers for providing and carrying on markets, although Section 276 of the Public Health Act enables the Local Government Board to invest a rural district council with all, or any, of the powers which an urban district council now enjoys. The Board, however, have been advised that the provisions of Section 166 as they stand cannot be applied to rural districts.

The proposal in the Bill to meet this difficulty is to enable rural district councils, with the consent of the Local Government Board, to exercise the same powers as are exercisable by an urban district council with the consent of the owners and ratepayers. The reason for substituting the consent of the Local Government Board for that of the owners and ratepayers, to which, I believe, some exception was taken in another place, is that the consent of the owners and ratepayers cannot be conveniently obtained in a rural district. The methods of procedure prescribed in the Public Health Act to obtain this result are quite unsuitable to apply to a rural district, which is often of very wide extent. It is highly desirable that properly constructed markets should be established in rural districts. At present in many instances live stock markets are held on a portion of the public highway, and this practice is very often objectionable, not merely on sanitary grounds, but also from the point 34 of view of the well-being of the animals offered for sale.

Rural district councils are, under their present limited powers, unable to spend money on paving places where it has been the custom to hold markets, and on keeping them clean and in a sanitary condition. It is to remove all these difficulties that this Bill has been introduced. The owners and ratepayers will be fully protected under this procedure, because if there was any doubt as to the opinion of a locality the Local Government Board would, of coarse, hold a local inquiry before giving its consent. Some objection has been taken to the additional cost which will be thrown upon local authorities, but I do not think the expense will be at all largo and will be justified on the grounds of public health. I hope your Lordships will give the Bill a Second Reading.