Report by the Joint committee of the House of Lords and the House of Commons on public sewers (contributions by frontagers) : together with the proceedings of the committee and minutes of evidence and speeches delivered by counsel.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. Joint Committee on Public Sewers
Date:
1936
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Joint committee of the House of Lords and the House of Commons on public sewers (contributions by frontagers) : together with the proceedings of the committee and minutes of evidence and speeches delivered by counsel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    119/126 (page 91)
    before you with regard to Romford and their special compensation clause is an instance of it. I should have thought the best thing to do with regard to sewers of this kind, if there should be necessity for getting, so to speak, some contribution some day towards what is, after all, a trunk sewer when it is laid— if it is necessary to bring about that result, a good deal more hard thinking is necessary in order to produce a satis- factory clause than has been given to the subject up to date. That is my submission. Of course, again the whole question of agricultural land comes in; all these sorts of difficulties are just as much necessary to be dealt with in this premises will probably be much more infrequent. There will be rarer cases of that. But, in my submission, the whole principle is quite wrongly con- ceived, and the fact that that Romford Act is coupled up with that very common section now of setting off, against way- leave compensation, betterment, in my submission shows a _ hopeless injustice which cannot have been foreseen, I imagine, by those who drafted it. Mr. Tyldesley Jones.| My learned friend obviously looks upon local au- thorities as proceeding under this clause with impish glee to cause the utmost inconvenience to everybody concerned. My learned friend does not understand the clause. ‘With great deference to him, he does not appear to have studied it. May I try to put it in its right bearings. This clause has been passed in 10 places without any objection from landowners, who are just as astute as those: appearing to-day. J am going to show you why, in my view, these objec- tions are hopelessly founded; that is my view; I may be quite wrong. This is not dealing with a trunk sewer. My learned friend has over and ever again used the phrase ‘ trunk sewer’’. It is not. It applies to any sewer, it may be a 9-inch sewer. . Why my learned friend said: ‘‘ This is a trunk sewer’? I do not know. Let us see. Here is a piece of land which a land- owner want to develop. He lays out a road and he builds. Look what the local authority can do. Under the law to-day they can say: ‘‘ We are going to lay a sewer down that. road, and you have got to pay the cost of.it.. The frontagers have got to pay the whole cost of that sewer.’’ Now, suposing the fact is that, before he begins to develop, they want to lay that sewer so as to get to a place beyond, they carry their sewer through his land. He says: ‘‘ Now I am going to develop my land’’, and put a street on the sewer after the sewer has been constructed. The law to-day is that he can say: ‘I am not going to pay a penny.’ The position is exactly the same in the two cases; in the one case the sewer has been laid down after the street has been constructed by the landowner, and the landowner is liable to pay. Sir Henry Cautley.] You have already received betterment. Mr, Lyldesley Jones.| May I put that on one side for a moment; I am coming to that. Sir Henry Cautley.] I thought it had escaped you. Mr. Tydlesley Jones.] I am not going to forget that. I will come to the terms of payment. First of all, here is the road laid down, the road constructed first, the sewer constructed afterwards : not a farthing compensation to the land- owner, but the landowner liable to pay. There is no compensation to the land- owner if we put the sewer down after the landowner has put down his street, but he has to pay the whole cost of the sewer according to his frontage. Now take this case:—Sewer constructed first, street constructed afterwards. Unless this clause is passed, the landowner will have to pay nothing towards the cost of the sewer, which is the means of en- abling his property to be developed. _ Now let me come to payment. When we come to construct our sewer we have to pay him compensation for putting a sewer on his land, so if we construct a sewer before his street is made he is, to that extent, better off; he gets compensation for the use of his land. Under Clause 66 of he Romford Act we are entitled to say: ‘‘ You are claiming compensation for the damage done to your property by constructing a sewer through it. If we can show that, in fact, there is some enhancement of the value of your property by reason of the con- struction of the sewer, we are entitled to set off that enhancement against the compensation we should otherwise pay you.’’ In other words, we should pay him compensation for the net damage done to his property by constructing the sewer. Sir Henry Cautley.| The only advan- tage he can get is the use of the sewer.