§ Appendix A
§ Form of Notice to Owner, etc.
§ [FORM referred to in STANDING ORDERS 13 and 61]
§ No
§ Sir,
§ [Short title of Bill]
§ We beg to inform you that application [has been] [is intended to be] made to Parliament in the [present] [ensuing] Session for leave to introduce this Bill.
§ We understand that your interest in this property is as stated in Part(s) I [& II] of the annexed Schedule. If the Bill passes into law, the property mentioned in Part I of the Schedule, or a right to use the same, will be liable to be acquired compulsorily under the powers of the Act [and that the property mentioned in Part II of the annexed Schedule will be liable to the imposition of an improvement charge].
§ A plan [and section] relating to the purposes of the Bill, with a book of reference thereto, [was] [were] [will be on or before the 20th November next] deposited for public inspection with the [here insert the several clerks of county councils, town clerks of county boroughs, or principal sheriff clerks, as the case may be] of the counties or county boroughs of [specify the counties or county boroughs in which the property is situate]. A copy of so much of the said plan land section] as relates to the [parish or other area in accordance with the terms of Standing Order 36] in which the property in which you are interested is situate, with a book of reference thereto, [has been] [will be on or before the 20th November next] deposited for public inspection with the [clerk, or other officer mentioned in the said Order], on which plan the said property is designated by the number or numbers in the annexed Schedule.
§ If the annexed Schedule contains any error or misdescription will you kindly inform us at your earliest convenience?
§ Copies of the Bill or the relevant parts thereof [have been] [will be on or before the 4th December next] deposited for public inspection and for sale at the [here insert the several offices at which deposits have been or are to be made in accordance with S.O. 4A].
§ [We also beg to inform you that it is intended that the Act shall provide that, notwithstanding Section 92 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 [or Section 90 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1845], you may be required to sell and convey a part only of your property, numbered on the deposited plan.]
1002§ [We also beg to inform you that it is intended that the Act shall exclude Section 92 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and shall substitute therefor a provision restricting the power of acquiring compulsorily a part only of a house, building or manufactory to cases where the part can be taken without material detriment to the house, building or manufactory and restricting the power of acquiring compulsorily a part only of a park or garden belonging to a house to cases where the part can be taken without seriously affecting the amenity or convenience of the house.]
§ Objection to the Bill may be made by depositing a Petition against it. The latest date for such deposit will normally he 6th February if the Bill originates in the House of Lords or 30th January if the Bill originates in the House of Commons; [but as the Bill is a late Bill the last date for lodging petitions against the Bill in the House in which it originates will normally be the tenth day after the Bill is read a first time in that House.
§ This date has not yet been ascertained, but it will not be before the. If you require to be informed of this date, when it is ascertained, we shall be glad to inform you upon being requested in writing to do so.]
§ Copies of the Standing Orders of both Houses of Parliament relating to the time and mode of presenting Petitions in opposition to Bills are annexed hereto.
§ We are, Sir,
§ Your most obedient servants,
§ To")
§ page 91 line 7, after ("Property") insert ("[rights to use]") leave out ("[or used]")
§ —(Lord Merthyr.)
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I must say that I feel a little guilty about this very long list of amendments. Fortunately, the Lord Chairman of Committees has explained a good many of them. I only express the hope that all my colleagues in the House have not been as remiss about studying them in detail as I have been. Certainly I have heard no objections from my side of the House since they were first printed in the Notices of Proceedings, but I hope that the Lord Chairman is completely confident that there is nothing controversial in them.
I would only say, in passing, speaking as one who lives in a rural area, that when the noble Lord talks about advertisement, which is fundamental to the procedure in seeing that citizens are properly informed in certain circumstances, I hope there will be no question, in the proposed practice to which 1003 he referred, of omitting from the present list any local newspaper in which it has been the practice to publish these notices; because I have found that the locally published paper is almost the only weekly reading that people in rural areas take, apart from the Sunday morning newspaper. I hope there is going to be no real break in the present practice.
§ VISCOUNT BRIDGEMANMy Lords, before the noble Lord replies, may I ask whether I am right in thinking that the point which the noble Viscount opposite has raised was exhaustively dealt with by the Committee under my late noble friend, Lord Reading?
LORD MERTHYRMy Lords, in answer to the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, I think I can quite safely assure the House that none of these Standing Orders can properly be described as controversial. I have been through them all very carefully, and I could not find one which, so far as I am aware, should arouse any controversy.
With regard to the publication point, I agree with the noble Viscount behind me that this arises from the recommendations of the Reading Committee. I will take careful note of what the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, has said about individual newspapers, but, as I said in my original speech, I think it is more sensible to publish in a paper which is circulated in the area concerned. Of course, in most cases that paper will also be published in that area, so this point is not likely to arise except in a few cases, and that only where a paper circulates in one area but is actually published in another. As I say, in most cases there will be no change. But I undertake to look again into the point raised by the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am much obliged to the noble Lord. What I had in mind was this. In a good many rural areas, perhaps known to your Lordships, you will find a daily newspaper which is regional in character and circulation. But there are weekly newspapers of considerable circulation, perhaps 40,000 or 50,000 a week, in the immediate area, 1004 and I was anxious that, in choosing between the two types of journals, the weekly newspaper was not going to be omitted.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to: the said Standing Orders amended accordingly.