Gasworks Clauses Act 1871
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1871 c. 41 |
| Year | 1871 |
Gasworks Clauses Act, 1871
(34 & 35 Vict.) CHAP. 41.
An Act to amend the Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847.
[13th July 1871]
Whereas it is expedient that the provisions contained in the Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847, should be amended:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows (that is to say,)
1 & 11 Vict. c. 15. and this Act to be construed together.
1. The Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847, and this Act, shall be construed together as one Act and the provisions of this Act shall be held to repeal and supersede such of the provisions of that Act as are inconsistent with this Act.
2 Short title.
2. This Act may be cited as ‘TheGasworks Clauses Act, 1871.’
3 Application of Act.
3. The provisions of this Act shall apply to every gas undertaking authorised by any special Act hereafter passed, or by any provisional order made under the authority of the Gas and Water Works Facilities Act, 1870, save where the said provisions are expressly varied or excepted by any such special Act or provisional order; and every such special Act and provisional order is in this Act included in the term ‘the special Act.’
4 Interpretation of terms.
4. Terms used in this Act have the same meanings respectively as the same terms have when used in the Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847, and in the Gas and Water Works Facilities Act, 1870.
The term ‘prescribed’ in this Act shall mean prescribed by the special Act:
The term ‘premises’ in this Act shall include house and building:
And the expression ‘superior courts’ or ‘court of competent jurisdiction’ in this Act, or in any Act wholly or partially incorporated herewith, shall be read and have effect as if the debt or demand in respect of which the expression is used were an ordinary simple contract debt and not a debt or demand created by statute.
General Provisions.
5 Prohibition against erecting gasworks elsewhere than on lands specified in schedule.
5. The Undertakers shall not manufacture gas, or any residual products, except upon lands described in the special Act, and they shall not store gas, except upon those lands, without the previous consent in writing of the owner, lessee, and occupier of every dwelling-house situate within three hundred yards of the limits of the site where such gas is intended to be stored.
6 Sale of superfluous lands.
6. The Undertakers may sell and dispose of any lands which are vested in them, or which they are authorised to purchase, or which they may hereafter acquire, and which shall not be required for the purposes of the undertaking, and the provisions of ‘The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845,’ sections 128 to 132 (both sections inclusive), shall apply to any such sale; and the Undertakers Tray also from time to time sell and dispose of any works, buildings, or erections on any lands belonging to them which shall not be required for the purposes of the undertaking.
7 Receipts of guardians, &c. to be sufficient discharge.
7. If any money be payable to a shareholder in a gas undertaking, being a minor, idiot, or lunatic, the receipt of his or her respective guardian or committee shall be a sufficient discharge to the Undertakers for the same.
8 For appointment of receiver.
8. The mortgagees of the Undertakers may enforce payment of arrears of interest or principal, or principal and interest, due on their mortgages, in England and Ireland by the appointment of a receiver, and in Scotland by the appointment of a judicial factor; and in order to authorise the appointment of a receiver or judicial factor in respect of principal, or principal and interest, the amount owing to the mortgagees by whom the application for a receiver is made shall not be less than in the whole one thousand pounds, or such sum as shall be specified in the special Act.
9 Undertakers not exempted from indictment.
9. Nothing in this or the special Act shall exonerate the Undertakers from any indictment, action, or other proceeding for nuisance in the event of any nuisance being caused by them.
10 Power to take easements, &c. by agreement.
10. Persons empowered by ‘The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845,’ to sell and convey or release lands, may, if they think fit, subject to the provisions of that Act and of ‘The Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts Amendment Acts, 1860,’ grant to the Undertakers an easement, right, or privilege, not being an easement of water, required for the purposes of the special Act, in, over, or affecting any such lands; and the provisions of the last-mentioned Acts with respect to lands and rentcharges, as far as the same are applicable in this behalf, shall extend and apply to such grants, or to such easement, rights, or privileges as aforesaid.
Supply of Gas to Owners and Occupiers of Premises.
11 Undertakers to furnish sufficient supply of gas to owners and occupiers within the limits of the special Act.
11. The Undertakers shall, upon being required so to do by the owner or occupier of any premises situate within twenty-five yards from any main of the Undertakers, or such other distance as may be prescribed, give and continue to give a supply of gas for such premises, under such pressure in the main as may be prescribed, and they shall furnish and lay any pipe that may be necessary for such purpose, subject to the conditions following; (that is to say,)
The cost of so much of any pipe for the supply of gas to any owner or occupier as may be laid upon the property of such owner or in the possession of such occupier, and of so much of any such pipe as may be laid for a greater distance than thirty feet from any pipe of the Undertakers, although not on such property, shall be defrayed by such owner or occupier.
Every owner or occupier of premises requiring a supply of gas shall—
Serve a notice upon the Undertakers at their office, specifying the premises in respect of which such supply is required, and the day (not being an earlier day than a reasonable time after the date of the service of such notice) upon which such supply is required to commence;
Enter into a written contract with the Undertakers (if required by them so to do) to continue to receive and pay for a supply of gas for a period of at least two years, of such an amount that the rent payable for the same shall not be less than twenty pounds per centum per annum on the outlay incurred by the Undertakers in providing any pipe to be provided by them for the purpose of such supply; and
Give to the Undertakers (if required by them so to do) security for the payment to them of all moneys which may become due to them by such owner or occupier in respect of any pipe to be furnished by the Undertakers and in respect of gas to be supplied by them.
Provided always, that the Undertakers may, after they have given a supply of gas for any premises, by notice in writing, require the owner or occupier of such premises, within seven days after the date of the service of such notice, to give to them security for the payment of all moneys which may from time to time become due to them in respect of such supply, in case such owner or occupier has not already given such security, or in case any security given has become invalid, or is insufficient, and in case any such owner or occupier fails to comply with the terms of such notice, the Undertakers may, if they please, discontinue to supply gas for such premises so long as such failure continues.
12 Quality of gas.
12. The quality of the gas supplied by the Undertakers shall, with respect to its illuminating power, be such as to produce at the testing place provided in conformity with this Act a light equal in intensity to that produced by the prescribed number of sperm candles of six in the pound, and such gas shall as to its purity not exhibit any trace of sulphuretted hydrogen when tested in accordance with the rules prescribed in that behalf in Part II. of the Schedule A. to this Act annexed.
13 Undertakers may require consumers to use meters.
13. Every consumer of gas supplied by the Undertakers shall, if required to do so by them, consume such gas by a meter duly stamped under the authority of an Act passed in the session of Parliament held in the twenty-second and twenty-third years of the reign of Her present Majesty, intituled ‘An Act for regulating Measures used in Sales of Gas,’ and being a legal meter within the meaning of the said Act, or by a meter supplied or approved by the Undertakers: Provided always, that where the provisions of the said Act are in force no meter shall be used unless the same shall be a legal meter within the meaning of the said Act, and that elsewhere the Undertakers shall not refuse to approve of any meter which when duly tested according to the rules contained in the said Act for regulating...
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