HL Deb 24 July 1912 vol 12 cc671-2

Debate on Amendment moved after Third Reading resumed (according to Order).

LORD WILLINGDON

Your Lordships will remember that the Amendment which I moved on the Third Reading was to omit from the Schedule of the Bill Clause 7—

Purchase of Tramways out ode City by Local Authorities.

7. The provisions of Section 43 of the Tramways Act, 1870, shall apply to the intended tramways so far as situated outside the city. Provided that in the application of those provisions the period of forty-two years shall he substituted for the period of twenty-one years therein mentioned.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE)

This is a question which your Lordships will remember was raised by Lord Camperdown on the last occasion that this Bill was before the House. We then had some little disagreement as to the history of the case, and I promised to look into it. I find that what the noble Earl, Lord Camperdown, said was perfectly right—that he did raise this question when acting as Chairman of Commissioners in 1901, and he reported that whilst he had not the power to refuse this grant to the Glasgow Corporation he would have refused it to them had he possessed the power. The position under the Bill now before your Lordships is a very simple one. The tramway under this Bill is only seventy yards long—merely a siding. It is in the burgh of Renfrew and turns into a culde sac off a tramway in a street belonging, to the burgh of Renfrew, but a street in which the exact position of affairs is what the position would be in respect of this seventy yards of tramway if the clause which Lord Willingdon has moved to leave out is omitted. The ordinary purchase clause does not apply in the case of the main line of tramway, and it is desired by the promoters that the purchase clause should not apply to this arm, which is merely a siding and would be quite useless for tramway purposes to ally one not owning the main tramway. I think, therefore, that on the merits your Lordships will be well advised in agreeing to the Amendment.

On Question, Amendment agreed to: Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.