COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 17 November 1976)

§ The LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 12 and 13. It may be convenient for me at this stage to deal with Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 en bloc, and to speak at the same time to Amendments Nos. 25, 86 and 95.
This group of Amendments places the Board on the same footing as new town development corporations elsewhere with regard to the provision of sewerage and related services for new towns. The substantive Amendment of the group is Amendment No. 86. It adds to Schedule 3 a new Part VII entitled Sewerage Services which is an adaptation of Sections 34 and 40 of the New Towns Act 1965. Its effect is to empower the Secretary of State to authorise the Board to provide sewers and sewage disposal works for new town purposes and to provide for the transfer of completed sewers and sewage disposal works to the water authority, which seems to me to be an admirable and necessary purpose. I beg to move.

§ Baroness ELLES
My Lords, for once we can congratulate the House of Commons for acting as a very efficient revising Chamber and having inserted some Amendments which probably should have been contained in the Bill from the beginning. It is obviously a very important service and one which undoubtedly finds its place in this Bill. There are one or two points which were touched on in another place but not fully debated, and therefore at this stage, I shall not press the noble and learned Lord for an answer. I should like some notice to be taken of the fact that there seems to be no provision for the disposal of sewage. It seems to me that one of the most important functions of the Board, particularly in a tourist area and a famous coastline which is perhaps one of the few areas of sea round the island of the United Kingdom where bathing is still possible, is the disposal of sewage, or at least that the Board should 1379 see that whoever is responsible takes this function on and ensures that it is dealt with.
As we have been told, and as we who know that part of the world know well, agriculture and tourism are the main industries of Mid-Wales. If the Board or any subsidiary authority acting under the authority of the Board were not to take this into account it might well have a very serious effect on the tourist development of that area. We are only too well aware—particularly those who have any dealing with the European Community—that pollution of the sea is a major element in the development of European policy, so I very much hope that this aspect of these provisions will be studied and taken into account.

§ Lord BROWN
My Lords, may I remind the noble Baroness that there is a vastly greater coastline around Scotland where bathing is still possible and she must not exaggerate the extent of Wales.

§ Baroness ELLES
My Lords, perhaps the noble Lord has not bathed in Scotland. I have, and Wales is considerably warmer than Scotland.

§ Lord BROWN
My Lords, if I may say so the noble Baroness was referring to sewage and she has completely introverted my remarks. I am a Scot and I have bathed around the Scottish coast very satisfactorily.

§ The LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I do not know whether I should enter this controversy. I know that bathing in the Channel is cool and dangerous enough an exercise. It is a pity that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone, is not here to give us his useful and, if he will not mind my saying so, his elderly memories of immersion in the Artie waters around the coast. Sewage disposal works are included in relation to new town areas and I believe that in Part VIIA, Sewerage Services, there is a reference expressly to sewage disposal. I quite agree that it would be an appalling omission to collect it without disposing of it and I am confident that that will be done. Certainly the point is noted.