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136
in maintenance would be incurred by the substitution of the
pan gully for brick catch-pit gullies, but this should not weigh
when compared with the advantages of the new system.
The outcome of the above mentioned enquiry by the
sanitary committee being decidedly in favour of syphontrapping
of gullies, I thought it my duty, in order to the
prevention of nuisance, and danger to health, to recommend,
in the twelfth monthly report (December 7th, page 126)
that, as soon as practicable, the brick catch-pit gullies in this
parish should be abolished, and syphon-trapped gullies substituted
therefor. The matter was referred to the sanitary committee,
who reported adversely to the recommendation.
The subjects dealt with in this section of the report have
received consideration, on various occasions, by the sanitary
committee. More particularly was this the case in 1897, in
connection with complaints of offensive smells from the County
Council's main sewers, when the committee desired the law and
parliamentary committee to advise them as to the position of
the Vestry in regard to the matter generally. The law committee
referred the matter to a sub-committee who reported
thereon as follows:—
"Your sub-committee have had before them the correspondence between the
Vestry and the London County Council on this subject, and the report
of the Medical Officer of Health on 'offensive smells in streets.'
They have also considered the various sections in different Acts of Parliament
bearing on the same subject, and advise the committee that, as
to gullies, traps, and ventilators to sewers, the property of the Vestry,
there is a clear liability upon the Vestry in respect to nuisance arising
therefrom.
"It must not be forgotten that the duty to cleanse every grating or gully in
a street (except in streets cleansed by the Council), whether the gratings
and gullies belong to the Council or the Vestry, is by the London County
Council's (General Powers) Act, 1894, transferred to the Vestry.