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73
Exemption of Councillors from Jury Service.
The Council considered a letter from the Hendon Rural
District Council requesting the Council to support the following
resolution which they had adopted:—
(а) That in the opinion of this Council, exemptions from Jury Service provided
for in the Juries Acts, 1825 to 1922, require amendment so as to include elected
representatives of the people voluntarily serving as Borough, County or District
Councillors, who freely give of their time for the public benefit; and
(б) That copies of this Resolution be sent to the Prime Minister, the Lord
Chancellor, the Home Secretary, the Local Member of Parliament, and to all
Borough County and District Councils throughout the country.
It was stated that with the passing of each succeeding Local
Government measure, the calls upon the time of councillors became
greater ; so much so that to cope with the ever-increasing duties
they found it necessary to deprive their businesses of the benefit
of their time in order to serve the public. That those having no
such claims upon them should, by the very nature of their employment,
have exemption, whilst voluntary service for the public
benefit was disregarded, seemed to theHendon Council to be wrong
and to require rectification.
The Council supported the resolution of the Hendon Council,
and the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, the Home Secretary,
the Members of Parliament for the Borough, and the District
Council were informed accordingly.
A communication was later received from Sir Frederick Hall,
enclosing copy of letter addressed to the Prime Minister and his
reply which referred to an answer given in the House on March 6th,
1930, to a question on this subject.
The answer of the Prime Minister was to the effect that he
could not see his way to propose legislation for extending the
exemptions from jury service. At present, elected representatives
were exempt from serving upon County juries, and the Prime
Minister stated that he was unable to propose any other relief.
Bills in Parliament.
During the period under report, the Council had before them
reports from the Town Clerk upon the following Bills affecting local
authorities which had been presented to Parliament :—
Local Authorities (Enabling) Bill.
This Bill proposes to extend powers of local authorities in matters of finance
and municipal trading and substitute for the present system of giving local authorities
specific powers for particular purposes, a system of granting general powers,
subject in certain matters, to specific central regulation and control, to the larger
local authorities, including Metropolitan Borough Councils.
(Since this report was submitted, this Bill has been dropped.)
Land Values (Rating) Bill.
This Bill seeks to enable all Local Rating Authorities, by resolution of their
Council, to relieve industry and houses from the burden of local rates and to levy