Offices,—Manor House, King’s Road, S.W.
25th March, 1858.
Sir,—In connexion with the subjoined letter, I have been directed to transmit for your consideration as a member of the Committee of Works and for General Purposes, certain general heads for amendment. Of the meeting for the discussion of the same, and of any others which may appear to you desirable, you will be specially advised.
Dear Sir,—I beg to apprise you, for the information of the Vestry of Chelsea, that the Metropolitan Board of Works are now engaged in considering what amendments it may be expedient to introduce into the Metropolis Local Management Act, in the present session of parliament, and will be prepared to receive from the Vestry any suggestions they may desire to offer in reference to those provisions of the Act which relate to the duties and powers of vestries and district boards. If the Vestry should deem it proper to offer any suggestions, and you will be good enough, at your early convenience, to transmit to me the draft of any amended clause or clauses which may be proposed, I will immediately bring the subject under the notice of this Board.
Chas. Lahee, Esq.,
Manor House, King’s Road,
Chelsea.
| Clauses in Act 18 & 19
Vict. cap. 120.
| General Heads for
Amendment.
|
| XI. For every parish mentioned in either of the
Schedules (A) and (B) to this Act there shall be elected such
number as hereinafter mentioned of the ratepayers of the
parish who have signified in writing their assent to serve to be
auditors of accounts, which auditors shall be so elected at the
same times and in the same manner as members of the vestry; and
the number of ratepayers so to be elected auditors in any parish
not divided into wards under this Act shall be five, and the number of
ratepayers so to be elected auditors in any parish which is
divided into wards shall be the same as the number of wards, one
auditor being elected in each ward: Provided always, that where
the number of wards into which any parish is divided exceeds
five, the vestry of such parish shall at their first meeting
after the election of auditors as aforesaid, in any year, elect
by ballot from among such auditors five of them, and the five
persons so elected by ballot shall be the auditors for such
parish exclusively of any other person or persons who may have
been elected an auditor or auditors for such parish under the
provisions herein contained; and a list of the five persons so
elected by the vestry shall be forthwith published by the
churchwardens in the parish as herein provided: Provided also,
that no person shall be eligible to fill the office of auditor of
accounts who is not qualified to fill the office of Vestryman for
the parish; but no person shall be eligible to fill the office of
auditor who is a member of the vestry; and if any person be
chosen to be both a member of the vestry and auditor of accounts,
he shall be incapable of acting as a vestryman.
| The system of accounts being necessarily intricate,
and the scope of the powers of the Vestry to incur legal debts
inaccurately defined, the duties of the auditors are very
responsible.
To consider whether a system of paid auditors, not
being of necessity ratepayers, such as that in practice
under the Poor Laws, is desirable, with the
necessary powers for enforcing their disallowances.
|
| XII. The auditors first elected under this Act in
any parish as aforesaid shall go out of office at the time
appointed for the election of vestrymen and auditors in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and the auditors
then elected and to be thereafter elected shall go out of office
at the election of vestrymen and auditors in the year next
following their election.
| There appears to be no reason why the annual election
might not be fixed for the 1st of May (sec. 7); the
audit cannot commence until the 1st of May (sec. 195),
it may therefore happen that the auditors go out of office
before they can commence their audit.
|
| XVI. On the day of election of vestrymen and
auditors in any parish under this Act the parishioners then rated
to the relief of the poor in the parish, or, where the parish is
divided into wards under this Act, in the ward thereof for which
the election is holden, and who are desirous of voting, shall
meet at the place appointed for such election, and shall then and
there nominate two ratepayers of the parish, or (if the parish be
divided into wards) of the ward for which the election is holden,
as fit and proper persons to be inspectors of votes; and the
churchwardens, or, in the case of a ward election, such one of
the churchwardens as is present thereat, or, where one of the
churchwardens is not present, the person appointed by them to
preside thereat, shall, immediately after such nomination as
aforesaid by the parishioners, nominate two other such ratepayers to
be such inspectors; and after such nominations the said
parishioners shall elect such persons duly qualified as may be
there proposed for the offices of vestrymen and auditors or
auditor: and the chairman at such meeting shall declare the
names of the parishioners who have been elected by a majority of
votes at such meeting: Provided nevertheless, that no person
shall be entitled to join or vote in any such election for any
parish, or any ward of any parish, or be deemed a ratepayer
thereof, or be entitled to do any act as such under this Act,
unless he have been rated in such parish to the relief of the
poor for one year next before the election, and have paid all
parochial rates, taxes, and assessments due from him at the time
of so voting or acting, except such as have been made or become
due within six months immediately preceding such voting or
acting.
| How are the churchwardens to know officially from the
chairman of the ward meetings who are elected? and,
in the case of persons elected to supply vacancies caused
otherwise than by effluxion of time, (sec. 9), in whose
places?
Where there is a poll, the inspectors certify to the
chairmen, (sec. 22,) and the chairmen should be required
to certify under their hands to the churchwardens, in a
similar way. Where there is no poll, they
should certify in accordance with their declaration.
|
| XXII. The inspectors shall, immediately after
they have decided upon whom the aforesaid elections have fallen,
deliver to the churchwardens, or to one of them, or other,
the person presiding at the election, a list of the
persons chosen by the parishioners to act as vestrymen and
auditors or an auditor of accounts; and the said list,
or a copy thereof, shall be published in the parish as
herein provided.
| By whom should this list be prepared and published?
(see sec. 26). If by the churchwardens an official copy
should be sent to the vestry.
|
| XXX. At every meeting of any vestry under
this Act, in the absence of the persons authorised by law or
custom to take the chair, the members present shall elect a
chairman for the occasion before proceeding to other
business, and the chairman, in case of an equality of votes on
any question, shall have a second or casting vote.
| To consider whether a permanent chairman is
desirable.
|
| LV. Any member of the Metropolitan Board of Works,
or of any vestry elected for any parish mentioned in Schedule (A)
or (B) to this Act, or of the Board of Works for any district,
may at any time resign his office, such resignation of any member
of the Metropolitan Board of Works to be notified in writing
signed by such member to chairman of such board, and such
resignation of any vestryman or member of any such district
board to be notified in writing signed by such vestryman
or member to the churchwardens of the parish for which he was
elected.
| How is the fact of such resignation to become
officially known to the vestry? either a notice of such
resignation should be sent by the churchwardens to the clerk of
the vestry, or the resignation should be sent to him in
addition to the churchwardens.
|
| LXIX. The vestry of every parish mentioned in
Schedule (A) to this Act, and the Board of Works for every
district mentioned in Schedule (B) to this Act, shall (subject to
the powers by this Act vested in the Metropolitan Board of
Works) from time to time repair and maintain the sewers under
this Act vested in them, or such of them as shall not be
discontinued, closed up, or destroyed under the powers herein
contained, and shall cause to be made, repaired, and maintained
such sewers and works, or such diversions or alterations of
sewers and works as may be necessary for effectually
draining their parish or district.
| Instead of the words “as may be
necessary,” to employ the terms made use of in
sec. 135, “as they may from time to time think
necessary.”
|
| LXXX. Where any sewer in any of the parishes
mentioned in either of the Schedules (A) and (B) to this Act,
into which any drain shall be made or branched, has been built
since the third day of September, one thousand eight
hundred and thirteen, and before the commencement of this Act, at
the expense of any person or body other than any commissioners of
sewers, the vestry or district board in whom such sewer
is vested may order such sum as they may deem just to be paid
and contributed by the owner of the house to which such drain
belongs towards the expense of the construction of such sewer,
which sum shall, on the receipt thereof by such vestry or board,
be paid over to the person or body aforesaid, and such vestry or
board may, if they see fit, order and accept payment of such sum,
with interest after a rate not exceeding five pounds for the
hundred by the year, by instalments, within any period not
exceeding twenty years.
| This section would appear not to reach those sewers in
Schedule D, which are vested in the Metropolitan Board of
Works, and have been built by private persons,
under the circumstances particularised therein.
If equitable in the one case, it would appear to be
so in the other.
|
| CV. In case the owners of the houses forming the
greater part of any new street laid out or made, or
hereafter to be laid out or made, which is not paved to the
satisfaction of the vestry or district board of the parish or
district in which such street is situate, be desirous of having
the same paved, as hereinafter mentioned, or if such vestry or
board deem it necessary or expedient that the same should be so
paved, then and in either of such cases such vestry or board
shall well and sufficiently pave the same, either throughout the
whole breadth of the carriage way and footpaths thereof, or any
part of such breadth, and from time to time keep such pavement in
good and sufficient repair; and the owners of the houses forming
such street shall, on demand, pay to such vestry or board the
amount of the estimated expenses of providing and laying such
pavement, (such amount to be determined by the surveyor for the
time being of the vestry or board;) and in case such estimated
expenses exceed the actual expenses of such paving, then the
difference between such estimated expenses and such actual expenses shall
be repaid by the said vestry or board to the owners of houses by
whom the said sum of money has been paid; and in case the said
estimated expenses be less than the actual expenses of such
paving, then the owners of the said houses shall, on demand, pay
to the said vestry or board such further sum of money as,
together with the sum already paid, amounts to such actual
expenses.
CVI. The vestry or district board of any parish or
district may, if they think fit, by notice in writing put up in
any part of any street in their parish or district, not being a
highway, declare their intention of repairing the same under this
Act, and thereupon the same shall be from time to time repaired
by them under the authority of this Act: Provided always, that no
street shall be repaired as last aforesaid unless such notice in
writing be also given to all persons interested in such street,
or if within one month after notice in writing has been put up or
given as last aforesaid any person interested in such street, or
the person representing or entitled to represent any person
interested as aforesaid, by notice in writing to the vestry or
board object thereto.
CVIII. It shall be lawful for every vestry and district
board from time to time to place any posts, fences, and rails on
the sides of any footways or carriageways in their parish or
district, for the purposes of safety, and to prevent any carriage
or cattle from going on the same, and also to place any posts or
other erections in any carriage-way so as to make the crossings
thereof less dangerous for foot passengers, and also from time to
time to repair and renew any such posts, rails or fences, or to
remove the same, or any other obstruction or encroachment on any
carriageway or footway.
| It has been held (and the decision upon appeal
was not reversed) that the words “new
street,” (section 105), mean a street formed since
the commencement of this Act: the effect of this decision
will be to leave in an unsatisfactory, perhaps a dangerous
state, many streets used by the public, but which
have not been formally taken in charge by the various parishes in
which they are situated.
Perhaps a power to vestries and district boards to close up
as thoroughfares such streets might be advisable.
|
| CXIX. If any porch, shed, projecting window, step,
cellar door or window, or steps leading into any cellar or
otherwise, lamp, lamp post, lamp iron, sign, sign post, sign
iron, snowboard, window shutter, wall, gate, fence, or opening,
or any other projection or obstruction placed or made against or
in front of any house or building after the commencement of this
Act, shall be an annoyance, in consequence of the same projecting
into or being made in or endangering or rendering less commodious
the passage along any street in their parish or district, it
shall be lawful for the vestry or district board to give notice
in writing
to the owner or occupier of such house or building to remove such
projection or obstruction, or to alter the same, in such manner
as the vestry or board think fit, &c.
| To consider the propriety of introducing the words,
“projecting blind, blind frame, or part
thereof.”
|
| CXXX. Every vestry and district board shall cause
the several streets within their parish or district to be
well and sufficiently lighted, and for that purpose shall
maintain, or set up and maintain, a sufficient number of lamps in
every such street, and shall cause the same to be lighted with
gas or otherwise, and to continue lighted at and during such
times as such vestry or board may think fit, necessary, or
proper; and public lamps, and the lamp posts and lamp irons and
fittings thereof, to be provided by any vestry or district board,
shall vest in such vestry or board.
| Section 250 gives the following as the meaning
of the word “street” any or part of any
highway, road, bridge, lane,
footway, square, court, alley,
passage, whether a thoroughfare or not.
There should be some limit to the obligation to
light.
|
| CCII. The Metropolitan Board of Works and every
district board and vestry respectively may from time to time
make, alter and repeal bye laws for all or any of the purposes
following; (that is to say), for regulating the business and
proceedings at their meetings and of committees appointed by
them, the appointment and removal of their officers and servants,
and the duties, conduct, and remuneration of such officers and
servants; and the said Metropolitan Board may also from time
to time make, alter, and repeal bye laws for
regulating the plans, level, width, surface
inclination, and the material of the pavement and roadway
of new streets and roads, and the plans and level of sites
for building, and for regulating the dimensions,
form, and mode of construction, and the
keeping, cleansing, and repairing of the pipes,
drains, and other means of communicating with
sewers, and the traps and apparatus connected
therewith; for the emptying, cleansing,
closing and filling up of cesspools and privies; and
for other works of cleansing, and of removing and
disposing of refuse, and for regulating the form of appeal
and mode of proceeding thereon; and generally for carrying
into effect the purposes of this Act: and every such board
and vestry may thereby impose such reasonable penalties as they
think fit, not exceeding forty shillings, for each breach of such
bye laws, and in case of a continuing offence a further penalty
not exceeding twenty shillings for each day after notice of the
offence from the board or vestry: Provided always, that under
every such bye law it shall be lawful for the justices before
whom any penalty imposed thereby is sought to be recovered to
order the
whole or part only of such penalty to be paid, or to remit the
whole penalty: Penalty: Provided also, that no bye laws shall be
repugnant to the laws of England or to the provisions of
this Act; and that no bye law shall be of any force or effect
unless and until the same be submitted to and confirmed at a
subsequent meeting of the board or vestry: Provided also, that no
penalty shall be imposed by any such bye law unless the same be
approved by one of Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of
State.
| The attention of the Metropolitan Board has been drawn
to their powers under this section, and they have passed
the following resolution upon the subject, in that
“it is not practicable for this Board to lay down any
uniform body of regulations for regulating the plans and levels
of sites for buildings and for the construction of house
drainage, properly adapted to the peculiar circumstances
of each district; and that the Vestry of Chelsea be so
informed.”
No doubt uniformity is desirable; but regulation of
some kind, for the guidance of the officers, is
necessary.
The power of making such bye laws should lie in the body
for whom its exercise is practicable.
|
| CCL. The word “drain” shall mean and
include any drain of and used for the drainage of one building
only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for
the purpose of communicating with a cesspool or other like
receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage
of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different
persons is conveyed, and shall also include any drain for
draining any group or block of houses by a combined operation
under the order of any vestry or district board.
| To consider whether the word “drain” should
be made to include any drain, for draining any group or
block of houses, by a combined operation, under the
authority of any former Commissioners of Sewers.
|