HL Deb 30 July 1964 vol 260 cc1208-9

[The references are to Bill [174] as first printed for the House of Commons]

Clause 1, page 2, line 12, at end insert (", but does not include any underground stream, or any body of water, whether under ground or otherwise, which is not a stream.")

Clause 3, page 3, line 17, after ("board") insert ("having regard to their statutory duties, and");

Clause 3, page 3, line 22, at end insert ("the point of abstraction of water,");

Clause 3, page 3, line 26, leave out from beginning to ("may") in line 27;

Clause 3, page 3, line 28, leave out from ("application;") to end of line 29 and insert ("and in the case of refusal of consent the board shall communicate in writing their decision and the reasons therefor to the applicant.");

Clause 3, page 4, line 6, at end insert— ("(11) Before determining any appeal under this section the Secretary of State shall, if the applicant or the river purification board or any person who under subsection (5) of this section has made representations regarding the application so desire, afford to them an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose.");

Clause 3, page 4, line 8, leave out from ("final") to end of line 9.

Clause 5, page 5, line 19, leave out ("may") and insert ("shall");

Clause 5, page 5, line 20, leave out from ("occupier,") to end of line and insert ("consider the application as having been made by him in the first instance.")

Clause 7, page 5, line 39, after first ("that") insert ("if occasioned by exceptional shortage of rain").

LORD CRAIGTON

My Lords, for your Lordships' convenience, and with your Lordships' permission, I will move these Amendments en bloc. Before doing so, I should like to mention briefly just two of them. Amendment No. 1, at page 2, line 12, excludes from the scope of the Bill boreholes and underground and still surface water. To use such water is, unlike the drawing of water from a stream, an owner's unqualified Common Law right. Expert advice is that any such extraction is very unlikely to affect the flow of streams and, therefore, the degree of pollution—and it is control of pollution that is the purpose of this Bill.

Turning now to Amendment No. 6, at page 4, line 6, under the Bill as drafted when the granting of a licence is in dispute my right honourable friend has a discretionary right under the 1951 Act to hold a local inquiry. By this Amendment, which has the full support of the Scottish Committee; on Tribunals, anyone concerned has the right to call for a local inquiry if my right honourable friend has not done so. All the other eight Amendments are all drafting improvements. I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendments.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendments.—(Lord Craigton.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.