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question of combined drainage was raised, the Council having
intimated its inability to take any steps in the matter in the absence
of any desire on the part of the local authorities generally to have
such an index prepared at their expense.
As in the preceding year, several claims were sent in during the
year by persons for the return to them of money spent in carrying
out the requirements of the Vestry's officers relative to drainage,
upon the ground that the combined drains in question were in fact
sewers under the control of the Vestry; but in no instance were they
entertained, and except in the case of Richardson v. The Vestry
hereafter referred to, no legal proceedings arose. In one or two
doubtful cases of defective combined drainage the course was
adopted of advising the owners that if they compelled the Vestry to
do the necessary work the drain would be adopted by the latter as
a parish sewer, and the owner would always afterwards lie under
all obligations and penalties in respect of any interference with or
building over the same.
A difference arose between the Vestry and Messrs. Pullen & Son
in January 1896 with regard to the drainage of their new buildings,
the latter desiring to place the soil pipes inside the buildings, while
the Vestry (in accordance with the byelaws of the London County
Council) insisted on their being placed outside. Messrs. Pullen
strenuously resisted the order of the Vestry, alleging the great inconvenience
and nuisance likely to arise to the tenants in winter
time through the liability of the exposed pipes to freeze; but after
much correspondence and reference to the Council they were ultimately
informed that the latter had no power to sanction any
departure from the byelaws made under section 39 of the Public
Health (London) Act 1891, which required that the soil pipes should
be constructed outside new buildings.
The Vestry resolved as follows on the 5th February 1896:—
That the Vestry concur in the following resolutions passed by the Vestry
of St. Pancras, in favour of amending the law upon the question of
the supervision of house drainage to the following effect, viz:—
(a) Before making any drain, and before relaying, reconstructing
or amending the same, notice in writing shall be given to the
Vestry or District Board by the person intending to make
such drain.