It was not directly elected by the ratepayers of London, but was elected by the aforesaid local authorities and by the “City.”
It consisted of forty-five members. Three were elected by “the Mayor, aldermen, and commons of the City of London in common council assembled.”
Each of the six largest Vestries elected two of their members to it; the other Vestries one each, and the District Boards of Works elected the remainder.
It was thus representative of the whole of London—City and Metropolis included. Each year one-third of the members were to retire, and one-third to be elected in their place.
This central Board was charged with many important duties affecting London as a whole. Foremost amongst them was the first essential of any sanitary well-being—the improvement of the sewerage and drainage of London.
This new body superseded the Commissioners of Sewers, and was specially charged with the task of designing and carrying out “a system of sewerage which should prevent all or any part of the sewage within the metropolis from passing into the river Thames in or near the metropolis: and also make all such other sewers and works as they may from time to time think necessary for the effectual sewerage and drainage of the metropolis.”
It was also given general control over the sewage works, and power to make orders for controlling Vestries and District Boards in the construction of sewers in their respective parishes.
Furthermore it was given power to make, widen, or improve, any streets or roads in the metropolis for facilitating the traffic, and certain powers of prohibiting the erection of buildings beyond the regular line of buildings. It was given power, too, to make bye-laws—for regulating the plans, level, and width, &c., of new streets and roads; for the plans and level of sites for building; for the cleansing of drains, and their communication with sewers; for the emptying, closing, and filling up of cesspools; for the removal of refuse, and generally, for carrying into effect the purposes of the Act—all which bye-laws were to be enforced by the Vestries and District Boards.
Thus it was given large powers to deal with many of the matters which most affected the public health. But in some other such matters—essential for the effectiveness of the whole scheme—it was left strangely helpless. It was given no power to appoint a Medical Officer of Health for the metropolis to advise it as to matters affecting the health of London as a whole; or to appoint Inspectors of Nuisances to ascertain information upon sanitary matters and to carry out various sanitary duties.
But, gravest and most deleterious defect of all, no authority was conferred upon the Board to compel any negligent or recalcitrant local authorities to carry out the duties imposed upon them by Parliament or by bye-laws of the Board. Those authorities might with absolute impunity neglect to carry out even the imperative directions of Parliament as embodied in the Act, and thus what Parliament emphatically enacted “shall” be done might be left undone, with the most disastrous consequences to the public health, not merely of the particular parish, but to the great community of London.