Local Authorities under the Electricity (Supply) Acts
| Published date | 01 January 1928 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1928.tb02322.x |
| Date | 01 January 1928 |
Local
Authorities
under
the Electricity (Supply)
Acts
By
SIR
HARRY
E.
HAWARD
[Read before
the
Central and North Yorkshire Regional Group
of
the
Institute]
REASONABLY cheap and efficient suppIy of electricity is to-day
A.
Electricity
supply has therefore become
a
public utility service of first-class
importance. My object this evening
is
to explain the position which
Local Authorities occupy in the administration or control of this service
under the Electricity (Supply) Acts, to describe their powers and duties,
and to give some facts and figures regarding the great undertakings which
have been established by them.
This
public service is less than forty years old, dating,
as
it does, from
the
passing
of the Electric Lighting Act,
1888,
which amended the earlier
Act
of
1882
and marked the beginning
of
the era of electrical development
as
a public service.
a
virtual necessity in any well-ordered community.
THE
ELECTRICITY
SUPPLY ACTS
(1882
TO
1926)
The
first
and principal Act
of
1882
was largely founded upon the
Report of
a
Select Committee presided over by Dr. Lyon Playfair. The
following
is
an extract from their report-
"
If
corporations and other local authorities have not power under existing
statutes to take up streets and lay
wires
for street lighting or other public use
of the electric light, your Committee think that ample power should be given
them for
this
purpose. There seems to be some conflict
of
evidence
as
to
whether
the existing powers are sdcient or not
;
but even in regard to local authorities
it would be necessary to impose restrictions upon placing the wires too near the
telegraph wires used by'the Post Office,
as
the transmitting power of the latter
would
be
injuriously alfected by the too close proximity
of
the powerful electric
currents needed for producing light. Your Committee, however, do not consider
that
the time
has
yet arrived to give general powers to private electric companies
to break up the streets, unless by consent of the local authorities.
It
is,
however,
desirable
that
local
authorities should have power to give facilities to companies
or private individuals
to
conduct experiments. When the progress of invention
brings
a
demand for facilities to transmit electricity
as
a
source of power and
light from
a
common centre
for
manufacture and domestic purposes, then, no
doubt, the public must receive compensating advantages for
a
monopoly
of
the
use of the streets.
As
the time for this has not yet arrived. your Committee
do not enter
into
this subject further in detail than
to
say that
in
such
a
case it
might be expedient to give to the municipal authority
a
preference during
a
41
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