Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Hydref 1944.
It may be for the convenience of the Committee if I indicate the attitude of my right hon. Friend the Minister to this question. The Committee will agree, I feel, that the interval should be a fairly short one, and the question really ranges between 21 days and three months. There is a precedent for 21 days in the Public Works Facilities Act, 1930, where, no doubt, considerations of urgency also arose. I agree with my hon. Friends who say that of course we must scrutinise this matter. There is great force in the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Mr. Silkin) that the order is not something which will appear completely "out of the blue." In the case of a Clause 1 order, under Sub-section (5) of that Clause, there has to be publication by advertisements locally and in the "Gazette" of the intention to make the order. An undertaking was given by my right hon. Friend yesterday or the day before about having some general preliminary notice that the local authority were proposing to submit an application; When we come to the compulsory purchase orders there, again, there is a publication of notice of the submission of the order by advertisements in the local Press and in the "Gazette." That is before all the various steps which have to be taken before the order is finally made, and these may involve public inquiries or other inquiries and give time for objection. Clause 13 will, in any event, only operate on a Clause 12 order, and there will be, therefore, very considerable notice to those interested and whose property is affected before the order is actually made. My right hon. Friend is quite prepared to accept an extension, which was thought reasonable in certain quarters on both sides of the Committee, from 21 to 28 days, and with that undertaking I hope perhaps this question may not be pressed further.