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68
The Board's decision shall be final under
Section 54, on the point whether land is likely to be used for
building purposes.
Section 57, on the point whether a town planning scheme has
been complied with or contravened.
The Board will decide appeals under
Section 17, for the determination of a Closing Order.
Section 18, against a Demolition Order.
It has power of entry under Section 36.
Under Section 61 the Local Government Board may make or
execute a town planning scheme on default of a
local authority.
It will be seen that the new Act may effect quite considerable
advantages if the Local Government Board actually employs the
powers of compulsion and initiation delegated to it, otherwise the
results cannot be expected to reach very far in the direction of the
extinction of slums, and the provision of sanitary homes for the
working classes.
Section 17 does not go far enough towards the extinction of
underground sleeping rooms. The prohibition of the erection of
back to back houses in section 43 is good, but it seems a pity to
pick out a few things for the ban, while the jerry builder, without
contravening the London Building Act (1894), can still put together
erections that violate the elementary principles of sanitation.
The Act does not extend to Ireland.
The Act is like a complicated puzzle of multitudinous
references to previous enactments; it would have been much simpler
to codify all the Statutes upon the subject of the housing of the
working classes, re-enacting verbatim the desirable provisions, adding
the amendments and new provisions in suitable order, finally
repealing specifically all the previous statutes.
EDGAR TAUNTON,
Deputy Medical Officer of Healthy.