§ 4. The Minister may by order provide for saving, notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of section seventeen of this Act, any requirement of consent imposed by a special enactment or by a public general enactment as incorporated or applied in or by a special enactment with any modification, either as regards all works to which the requirement extends or as regards any class of such works.
§ 5. The Minister may by order provide for authorising, notwithstanding anything in subsection (3) of section seventeen of this Act, the imposition of such conditions as are therein mentioned on the giving of a consent."
§ The noble Lord said: Your Lordships will remember that on Second Reading I said that we had removed all paramount consents for underground apparatus in the area in which an undertaker has a statutory duty to supply. We thought at that time that the code in the Bill sufficiently protected highway authorities, and that paramount consent of highway authorities to undertakers' doing such works in maintainable highways was not necessary. But my notice has been drawn to the fact that there may be difficulties in such cases as the Black-wall Tunnel, where it is important to have a strict control over the laying of apparatus if dire consequences are not to follow. In this Amendment we propose to give the Minister power in special cases to preserve by order paramount consents which would otherwise be swept away by Clause 17 (1). I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 69, line 24, at end insert the said new paragraphs.—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ LORD LLEWELLINI think this Amendment is right. There are some cases where exceptional powers ought to be preserved. There is the case of the Birkenhead Tunnel and other tunnels where, because a tunnel has been built under a river and has become a highway, the authority must not think it has a right to put any sort of works down the tunnel.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHThis Amendment is consequential on the previous Amendment. I beg to move.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 71, line 19, at end, insert—
("In the case of an order under paragraph 4 or 5 of this Schedule—
On each of the parties on whom service would have been required under head (ii) of this Table if the order had been one under paragraph 1 for the modification of an enactment as regards the obtaining of the consent.")—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Sixth Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
§ Seventh Schedule [Application to London]:
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHThis Amendment is to meet the special case of the London County Council. Paragraph 3 of the Seventh Schedule obliges undertakers, when submitting plans and sections of proposed street works to a highway authority in London, to include an extra copy to be sent on to the London County Council if the street concerned is a classified road. The London County Council point out that there will be cases where an unclassified road may be included in a major road scheme and in that case they would like to have plans and sections of proposed works. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 71, line 37, leave out ("which is a classified road") and insert ("to which this paragraph applies").—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHThis Amendment is consequential on the previous one. I beg to move.
§ Amendment moved—
§
Page 71, line 46, at end, insert—
This paragraph applies to a highway which is a classified road, and to any other highway
830
as to which the London County Council had, before the submission of the plan and section, given to the Common Council or to the metropolitan borough council, as the case may be, and to the undertakers, notice of the desire of the London County Council that this paragraph should have effect in the case of all code-regulated works executed by the undertakers therein."—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH moved in Paragraph 5 (b) to leave out from the second "the" to the end of line 14, and insert "appropriate local authority." The noble Lord said: This Amendment also seeks to meet a special case. When a street is declared under the Second Schedule to be "prospectively a maintainable highway," the declaration has to be entered in the register of local land charges. In London, the London County Council, the Metropolitan Borough Councils and the Common Council of the City of London all keep registers of local land charges, and it was considered administratively preferable to provide for declarations under the Second Schedule for streets in Metropolitan Boroughs to be entered in the London County Council registers. The Metropolitan Borough Councils have pointed out that this will in fact cause more work than it will save, and that they should make entries in their own registers. This Amendment provides accordingly. I hope that it will receive the cordial support of the noble Lord, Lord Llewellin, because it follows the dictum he has just laid down, and which he will be able to have carried into effect a second time in one afternoon—that we should save labour, paper and time.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 73, line 9, leave out from the second ("the") to the end of line 14, and insert ("appropriate local authority.").—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH moved, in Paragraph 7 (1) to leave out "London" and insert "the Metropolitan or the City of London police district." The noble Lord said: With your Lordships' permission, I will deal also with the Amendments at line 38 and line 40, as they all affect the same point. They are intended to remove a defect in Paragraph 7. The intention of this paragraph is to provide that whenever undertakers 831 are about to carry out street works in the Metropolitan police district or in the City of London which will entail the closing to traffic of more than one-third of the carriageway of important roads the police authorities will be notified so that they can make the necessary arrangements to deal with traffic. The Metropolitan police district goes substantially beyond the administrative county of London, but as the paragraph is drawn at present it applies only to roads within the administrative county, and roads in the Metropolitan police district which are outside the administrative county would not be covered. This Amendment extends the paragraph to cover such roads.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 73, line 29, leave out ("London") and insert ("the Metropolitan or the City of London police district").—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHThis Amendment is consequential. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 73, line 58, leave out from the first ("of") to ("or") in line 39 and insert ("City of London police in the case of a highway in the City of London police district").—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTHThis Amendment is also consequential. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 7, line 40, leave out ("elsewhere in London") and insert ("in the Metropolitan police district").—(Lord Lucas of Chilworth.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Remaining Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
§ House resumed.