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say that even with the more stringent Building Act of i 894 things are
now but little better; at the present moment houses are being erected
in Fulham in such a manner that it is almost certain that in a very few
years they will be in a ruinous condition, and I have reported to the
Council some recent violations of the Building Act in respect of open
space at the rear of houses, a point which is also alluded to by
Dr. Young as having been neglected in the past.
This report of the Council's own officer is a strong argument in
favour of the transfer of many of the powers possessed by the London
County Council under the Building Act to the local authority, and I
would strongly urge the Vestry to endeavour to secure the transfer of
these powers, which was, I believe, recommended by the recent
Conference of local authorities, seeing how they are suffering from the
shortcomings of the central authority who now sit in judgment on
them.
On this report being sent to the Council they requested that I would
furnish them with some instances of contravention of the Building Act in
support of my statement. In reply to this I forwarded particulars of cases in
which the Act had been contravened in respect of the open space at the rear
of buildings, which had already been reported to the Council, and also
instanced some houses which had just been erected in Field Road and
Chelmsford Street, as justifying my remarks, that houses were being at the
present time erected, which would, in a few years, be in a ruinous condition,
and, in reply to a further request for specific details of the defects, I forwarded a
list of some seventy defects which were already to be noticed in these houses-
The houses were then inspected by the Council's officers, who reported that
the majority of the admitted defects did not come within the scope of the
Building Act, and with regard to those that did, the Building Act
Committee of the Council reported that they were advised that it was too
late for the Council to take any action with reference to the houses in
question, but they informed the Vestry " that in the event of its coming to
the knowledge of the Vestry that improper materials, such as brickwork,
mortar and plastering, are being used in the construction of buildings, the
strictest attention shall be paid to the matter if the Vestry will be good enough
to send an intimation to the Council while the work is in progress," and
since then I have drawn the attention of the Council to some houses in which
this appeared to me to be the case.
It is, however, pretty clear from the fact that a very small proportion of
the admitted defects in these houses came within the scope of the Building