HL Deb 24 May 1977 vol 383 cc1172-3

2.59 p.m.

Lord AVEBURY

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do now resolve itself into Committee on this Bill.

Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(Lord A rebury.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House in Committee accordingly.

[The Lord ABERDARE in the Chair.]

Clause 1 [Period for constructing roads]:

Lord AVEBURY moved Amendment No. 1: Page 1, line 12, leave out ("completed") and insert ("begun")

The noble Lord said: This is an Amendment to which I spoke on Second Reading, and I hope that it will meet with the approval of the Committee. Obviously, if works have been commenced during the five-year period outlined in Clause 1, it would be unreasonable to require that they be brought to a halt in mid course; and it would be extremely expensive as well if the contracts have been let and works have begun, suddenly to pull down the shutters and force the contractors to disappear off the site. Therefore, I have tabled this Amendment which replaces the word "completed" with the word "begun". I hope that this will meet with the approval of the Committee. I beg to move.

Baroness STEDMAN

As the noble Lord has said, this Amendment does exactly what he intended in his Second Reading speech. The effect is to preserve the powers to construct so much of the road as has been begun, instead of completed, which preserves the powers for that part of the road to which the scheme referred. It would not place a time limit on the construction that had begun, and the time limit is effectively transferred to the period between the date of authorisation and when the works begin. The Amendment improves the Bill by restricting the time limit to the period of the statutory processes, and, as presented, the time limit applied for the period from making the line to completing the road works. But I must advise the Committee that it still leaves the Bill applying only to motorways and not to the trunk roads or the local authority schemes.

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Clause 1, as amended, agreed to.

Clause 2 agreed to.

Clause 3 [Revocation of Schemes and Orders]:

On Question, Whether Clause 3 shall stand part of the Bill?

Lord AVEBURY

I am advised that Clause 3 is unnecessary, and the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman, confirmed this when we discussed it on Second Reading. I beg to move that Clause 3 be left out.

On Question, Clause 3 disagreed to.

Clause 4 agreed to.

House resumed: Bill reported with an Amendment.