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The Parliamentary Committee thereupon recommended the Vestry to apply in
the next Session of Parliament for a Provisional Order empowering them to supply
Electric Light and Power in this Parish, and to transfer or let out the work hereafter,
if thought desirable, and that the Vestry Clerk be instructed to take the
necessary steps to obtain the Order.
This recommendation was adopted by the Vestry, and a special meeting of the
Vestry was called, as required by the Electric Lighting Acts, on the 1st September,
1891, when the following resolutions were unanimously passed, on the molion of
Major F. M. Wenborn:—
(1) "That this Vestry proceed to obtain power to supply electricity within the
Parish of Saint Leonard, Shoreditch, for public and private purposes."
(2) "That a Memorial be forthwith presented to the Board of Trade for a
Provisional Order under the Electric Lighting Acts, 1882 and 1888, to
enable this Vestry to supply the Parish of Saint Leonard, Shoreditch?
or any part thereof, with electricity."
(3) "That it be referred to the Parliamentary Committee to present such
Memorial, and to lake all necessary steps and incur all necessary
expenses for obtaining such Order, and that the Vestry Clerk be
instructed to carry out the necessary work in connection with the
application."
In accordance with these resolutions, I prepared the necessary advertisements,
and served the requisite notices, with copies of plans showing the area of supply.
A Memorial by the Vestry praying for a Provisional Order was sealed on the
1st December, 1891, and duly lodged with the Board of Trade, and I prepared
a draft of the proposed order which was duly deposited at the necessary offices.
Objections to the Order were lodged by The Conservators of the River
-Thames, The North London Railway Company, and The London and North
Western Railway Company, but these objections were, after negociations, satisfactorily
met, and oil the 16th January, 1892, I attended at the Board of Trade and
proved to their satisfaction that all the requirements under the Electric Lighting
Acts and the Rules of the Board had been legally complied with. I also obtained
some modification of the County Council clauses in the Vestry's favour, but the
Board limited the net profit to be made by the Vestry from the supply to 5 per
cent, on the capital involved (instead of 7 per cent, as asked by the Vestry) as this
margin is now the uniform rate allowed to local authorities. The Board also made
various amendments in the draft, which recent experience has suggested, are
improvements in the form of the Model Order to facilitate the working of the
undertaking by local authorities, and in April, 1892, the Board of Trade formally
granted a Provisional Order to the Vestry in respect of this parish.