The purpose of this short Bill——
Notice taken that 20 Deputies were not present; House counted, and 20 Deputies being present,
Committee on Finance. - Arterial Drainage (Amendment) Bill, 1955—Second and Subsequent Stages.
Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The purpose of this short Bill is to remove a doubt which has arisen in the interpretation of the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945. It is provided in that Act that the cost of construction work on arterial drainage schemes carried out by the Commissioners of Public Works shall be a Stage charge and that, on completion, the works shall be maintained at the expense of the county council or county councils concerned. The commissioners are responsible under the Act for both construction work and subsequent maintenance work, and provision is made in Section 37 for repayment to them annually, by the appropriate county councils, of the amounts expended from year to year on maintenance. Efficient and economical maintenance of the large-scale catchment drainage schemes will require the employment of mechanical plant (excavators, vehicles, etc.) and of considerable quantities of small tools and supplies.
For the purposes of their drainage programme generally the commissioners have a large pool of plant, machines, vehicles, tools and other equipment based at their central engineering workshop from which issues are made as required to the various works in progress. The obvious and practical course is to draw on these resources for the purpose of the maintenance of drainage works, in the same way as for drainage construction works. To arrive at the full cost of works the normal practice is to add, to the direct outlay, charges reflecting the value of the services rendered—the charge for tools and supplies being their recorded value and for machinery a weekly rate computed by reference to the cost of purchasing, servicing and overhauling the item concerned and to its estimated working life.
A local depot, combining the functions of an office and a store, will be needed for the maintenance of each completed drainage scheme, and in measuring the cost of maintenance for each year account must be taken of the annual value of the premises made available.
On considering sub-section (3) of Section 37 of the 1945 Act a doubt arose whether power was in fact given to the commissioners to include, in their statutory demands on county councils for recovery of the cost of maintenance, sums representing the value of the services rendered by engineering plant and machinery, stores or premises provided by the commissioners. The purpose of the present Bill is to remove the legal doubt that has arisen in that regard.
As Section 37 at present stands, the commissioners could buy specifically for the maintenance of each drainage scheme every item of plant, equipment or supplies required for that purpose and recover such outlay from the county council concerned. The adoption of such a course would result in inordinately heavy charges against the county councils, particularly in the first year of maintenance when the heavy initial cost of plant would have to be recovered, and in an unequal distribution of the cost of maintenance as between one year and another. The Bill enables the commissioners to adopt the obvious and practical course of drawing on the available pool of plant and machinery, etc.
The main provisions of the Bill are in Section 2. Paragraph (a1) of sub-section (1) of Section 2 covers the question of machinery and engineering equipment and supplies and paragraph (a2) deals with the matter of premises.
Question put and agreed to.
Agreed to take remaining stages now.
Bill passed through Committee; reported without amendment; received for final consideration; and passed.