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138
"2. That application should be made to the County Council, from time to
time, for permission to trap offensive gullies, and close offensive ventilating
openings connected with sewers under the control of the Council, in
conformity with the provisions of the 27th section of the Metropolis
Local Management Act, 1862."
The report was referred to the sanitary committee, who,
in their report thereon, recommended:—
(a) That offensive street gullies be efficiently trapped.
(b) That all new gullies . . . be pan-gullies with syphon-trapped
outlets.
(c) That the County Council be requested to trap with syphon-traps all
offensive gullies on main-line sewers.
The committee stated, with reference to the proposed
abolition of sewer ventilators at the road level, that—
"In cases where complaints are made of nuisance, or annoyance is caused by
offensive smells from sewer ventilators, efforts are being made to obtain
consent for the fixing of shafts up adjacent houses, and where such consent
is obtained, the objectionable ventilators are abolished; whilst in
those cases where consent is refused, the Vestry have no alternative but
to retain the surface gratings."
The committee, moreover, were of opinion that it was—
"Most desirable that some further and combined action should be taken to
secure a more efficient and less offensive mode of ventilating the sewers
of the metropolis."
They accordingly recommended—
''That a communication be addressed to the County Council calling their
attention to the matter, forwarding copies of the reports by the surveyor
and the medical officer of health, and requesting them to instruct their
engineer to convene a conference of the surveyors and medical officers
of health to discuss the question with him, with a view to his reporting
upon the general question of metropolitan sewer ventilation."
The report of the committee was adopted; and as the
result, a conference of the surveyors with the engineer to the
Council, was held, in January, 1898, to consider "The ventilation