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59
COMBINED DRAINAGE.
Under Sec. 68 of the Metropolis Local Management Act,
quoted below, it will be observed that all sewers in the
Parish of Lambeth, save those vested in the London County
Council, are the property of the Vestry, and under Sec. 69
their maintenance and repair is an obligation on the Vestry.
In many recent decisions the Courts of Law have ruled
that a considerable part of the channel in combined systems
of drainage, even when on private property and beneath
the sites of houses, are, under certain conditions, sewers,
and maintainable by the Parish Authorities.
In order that the Committee may fully understand the
practical bearings of the many cases which, from time to
time, I shall find it my duty to submit to their notice, I
have given short definitions of the words "sewer" and
"drain," together with a description of when a drain becomes
a sewer within the meaning of the Act. I have prefaced
these remarks with a copy of the Sections of the
Metropolis Local Management Acts relating to combined
drainage, and I have concluded with a few recommendations
which are put forward for your consideration.
Sections of the Metropolis Local Management Act
relating to combined drainage.
Sec. 250, 18 & 19 Vict., c. 120.—The word "drain"
shall mean or include any drain of or 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