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165 [1900
The sanitary department of nearly all authorities are accused of unnecessarily
harassing private interests, that is to say, the owners of property, whose constant
cry of persecution very frequently begets in local bodies a feeling that such is the
case. Again, builders and plumbers complain that they are compelled to do work
they should not be required to do, but the answer to such a statement is that they
cannot be forced to do anything outside the Act. But what are the facts? There
has never been a ground for even the suggestion of persecution in Islington. But,
on the other hand, there has been a straightforward administration of the Public
Health Acts and the By-laws made under them—without favouritism, without
respect of persons, without swerving from the straightforward path of duty. The
great bulk of the properties dealt with in Islington have been inspected in the first
instance because of a complaint, or because of the presence of an infectious disease
in the house. When information of a nuisance, which may be made by "any
person," not any ratepayer, not any Islingtonian, but anyone who chooses to make
the complaint, whether it be through a direct interest in the health of the people
living in the house, or through malice, or vindictiveness, or for any other reason, it
becomes "the duty of the Sanitary Authority to give such directions to their officers
as will secure the existence of the nuisance being immediately brought to the notice
of any person who may be required to abate it, and the officer shall do so by serving
a written intimation."
But the Act does not stop with the action which the officer takes on his own
initiative, for it goes on to enact in sect. 4, " that on the recipt of any information
respecting the existence of a nuisance the Sanitary Authority shall serve a notice on
the person by whose act, default, or sufferance the nuisance arises or continues."
It is not only the officials, therefore, but also the Sanitary Authority them.
selves who are bound to serve notices to abate nuisances. The Act goes a step
further also, for it takes precautions to insure that its provisions are enforced, for
in sec. 100 it recites that the London County Council" on its being proved that
any Sanitary Authority have made default in doing their duty under the Act with
respect to the removal of any nuisance, the institution of any proceedings, or the
enforcement of any bye-law, may institute any proceeding and do any act which
the Authority might have instituted or done for that purpose," and to recover from
the defaulting Authority the expenses that have been incurred.
But the Act goes still further, for in section 100 it states that "where complaint
is made by the County Council to the Local Government Board that any Sanitary
Authority have made default in executing or enforcing any provisions which it is
their duty to execute or enforce of this Act, or of any bye-law made in pursuance
thereof, the Local Government Board, if satisfied after due inquiry that the
Authority have been guilty of the alleged default, and that the complaint cannot
be remedied under the provisions of this Act, shall make an order limiting a time