Accrington on Rails - The Tramways: A Complete History - Robert Kenyon

constitution of the Board of Directors. Local representatives will be elected to seats on the Board of the consolidated Company. The policy of BET is to deal with these Companies not only from the standpoint of promoters, but also from that of investors. The BET Company permanently maintains a very substantial pecuniary interest in all of its associated companies. In the case of the Potteries Company, which we formed in order to carry on the North Staffordshire and other tramways in that area, we invested over £100,000 in Ordinary Shares: likewise in the Oldham - Ashton Company, we hold a large interest, and in the case of the Kidderminster Company, we subscribed in cash for all its ordinary shares. In each of these cases my Company has entered into agreements with local authorities, either for leasing the lines or postponing the right of the Company to purchase. In North Staffs the following Corporations are included, viz: Longton, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, and the Urban District Councils of Tunstall, Fenton and others. In the case of the Oldham - Ashton, which was a new line constructed by us with the concurrence of the local authorities, we have entered into an agreement with the Corporation of Ashton for the supply of electrical energy from them for the purpose of operating the Tramway, similar to that proposed by the Accrington Company at a price of 1 pence per unit for a minimum of 350,000 units, reducing to 1 penny per unit as the demand for supply increases. At North Shields, again we made a similar arrangement with the Corporation, whereby they undertook to supply electrical energy for the Tramway at practically the same rates as in Ashton. My Company has a very substantial interest in the South Staffs District, and I enclose a pamphlet to illustrate this fact. At a glance it will reveal that contained therein there are no less than seven lines converging in the area of Dudley, and this Company has made an agreement with Dudley Corporation, whereby that Corporation has granted leases of all the lines within their boundary to my Company. Whilst we on our side have agreed to take the necessary current for working them from the Corporation’s power station on terms to be agreed, and failing agreement to be settled by the Board of Trade. At Gateshead my Company is also carrying out a very large scheme of electrification of the tramways, and had obtained an Act of Parliament with the assistance of the Corporation for the purpose of constructing new lines and converting the existing lines over to electric traction. In this instance the Corporation, having regard to the advisability of having the Tramway and the street lighting in the same hands, has also transferred their electric lighting powers over to a Company with which we are associated, and the necessary power for both lighting and powering the tramway will be generated at the same power station. This same arrangement was also made in Kidderminster, where the Corporation transferred to a local Company formed by us, their electric lighting Order after an Act of Parliament had been obtained by us for the Tramways, so that both the power for the electric lighting and the Tramway will be provided by us for our own generating station.

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