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10. The Parish of Rotherhithe, like other Metropolitan Parishes, is constantly having
its roads and footpaths disturbed by Gas and Water Companies and others in the laying of
pipes and mains, which is a source of obstruction and danger to traffic, both pedestrian and
vehicular, the rating of which pipes, mains, etc., in the opinion of your Petitioners, is not
a sufficient quid pro quo for the advantages obtained, and they feel that the time has now
arrived when valuable indiscriminate powers should not be granted to trading Companies
and others to pull up and disturb the roads and footpaths of the Metropolis, unless some
very good and just reason can be shown for so doing, and not in the latter case unless proper
provision is made for equitably compensating the Parish or District affected.
11. The Company have on previous occasions applied for your Petitioners' consent to
their application to the Board of Trade for the grant of a Provisional Order in respect to
the Parish of Rotherhithe, as required by Section 1 of the Electric Lighting Act, 1888, which
consent your Petitioners have withheld for (he reason that one Company, viz., "The London
Electric Supply Corporation, Limited," already holds an Order for the Parish, and is laying
down mains therein for the supply of electricity, and your Petitioners are considering
as to the advisability of applying for an Order themselves in respect to the supply of electricity
within the Parish.
12. The Company, however, has dispensed with the consent of your Petitioners, and
at the present time is making a fresh application to the Board of Trade, to which your Petitioners
have lodged objections, and they anticipate that their objections will sufficiently
weigh with the Board to induce them to refuse the application.
13. For these and many other reasons your Petitioners strongly object to the Bill, and
say that it is not in the public interest that the powers sought by the Bill should be conferred
upon the Company, but, on the contrary, as the Bill seeks to create a huge monopoly,
which your Honourable House have by the provisions of the Electric Lighting Acts,
1882 and 1888 sought to destroy any idea of.
14. That the Preamble of the Bill is not true and is incapable of proof so far as the
Parish of Rotherhithe is concerned.