Postscript - Trust Annual Report 1969
People who followed the gas saga in Winchester, concerning the proposed under ground storage system will be interested in the latest debacle of that undemocratic body, the Gas Board.
Last year we gave a resume of the events in Winchester. At Abingdon the Board over-reached itself again. Legislation until recently provided that a planning authority must pay compensation to a Board if they were prevented from developing operational land.
Abingdon was to be saddled with an enormous low pressure gas holder, 128 ft. high and almost as wide. As in Winchester the Board made plans without informing the unsuspecting inhabitants or local councils, and when, "purely as a matter of courtesy" information was at last given, all hell was let loose.
The Board had the effrontery to place the contract for the gasholder after the planning authority had raised objections and then informed the local authority that they would be liable for half the cancellation fees if the project were stopped.
The M.P. for Abingdon led a desperate campaign of local authorities and Press until the scheme was stopped and a compromise arranged in which the Board had to pay more than half the extra costs, though Abingdon and Berkshire had £120,000 to pay.
In the 1968 Town and Country Planning Act compensation for refusal of planning permission was abolished. It is understood that the Gas Board is now more co-operative.