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Surveyor.
It is however now very seldom that overhanging branches of trees or hedges cause any damage to the roadways within an urban district, and unless they are an actual obstruction to the traffic, the growth of trees near urban roads and streets should be encouraged; indeed it is now a common practice to plant trees close alongside the roadway, the branches of which must of necessity hang over it, and cause no damage if the roadway is properly formed and attended to.
(8.) Surface Water from Private Premises running over Footpaths.—
It frequently happens that the rain-water which falls upon a front garden or courtyard finds its way, for want of a sufficient drain, out of the gate and across or along the public footpath, thus causing annoyance to pedestrians even if it does no injury to the path. There does not seem to be any clause in the Public Health Act 1875 to meet this objection, for the section which I have given with reference to rain-water shutes and down pipes (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 74), does not apply to such cases, as it only refers to water from the “roof or any portico or projection” and not to water falling upon the surface of a garden or courtyard, nor is there anything in the Highways Acts which can be brought to bear upon the subject.
If, however, any injury is caused to the footpath, no doubt the cause of offence may be stopped or the perpetrator prosecuted or indicted in default.
(9.) Hoardings and Scaffolds.—
When buildings are in course of erection, or repairs are being carried out to them, it is generally necessary that the person engaged in the work should construct either a hoarding or inclosure, or at all events a scaffold, so as to execute the work properly. Upon this point the following clause of the Towns Improvement Clauses Act has been incorporated with the Public Health Act 1875:
“Every person intending to build or take down any building within the limits of the special Act, or to cause the same to be so done, or to alter or repair the outward part of any such building, or to cause the same to be so done, where any street or footway will be obstructed or rendered inconvenient by means of such work, shall, before beginning the same, cause sufficient hoards or fences to be put up in order to separate the building where such works are being carried on from the street, with a convenient platform and handrail if there be room enough, to serve as a footway for passengers, outside of such hoard or fence, and shall continue such hoard or fence with such platform and handrail as aforesaid standing and in good condition, to the satisfaction of the commissioners, during such times as the public safety or convenience requires, and shall, in all cases in which it is necessary in order to prevent accidents, cause the same to be sufficiently lighted during the night.[147] And every such person who fails to put up such fence or hoard or platform with such handrail as aforesaid, or to continue the same respectively standing and in good condition as aforesaid, or who does not, while the said hoard or fence is standing, keep the same sufficiently lighted in the night, or who does not remove the same when directed by the commissioners within a reasonable time afterwards, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding 5l., and a further penalty not exceeding 40s. for every day while such default is continued” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 80).
Hoardings and scaffoldings are now so scientifically erected as to be little or no inconvenience to foot-passengers. Care must, however, be taken to see that in the erection of a hoarding the doors or gates in it shall not open outwards, and the police should be instructed to prevent carts being backed in and left standing across the footpath.
The surveyor must exercise great discretion in the length of time he allows a hoarding to remain; without undue hardship on the builder, he must study at the same time the more important question of the public convenience.