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147
NUISANCE FROM GAS WORKS.
Several complaints were received during the year of
nuisance from the gas works at Kensal Green—a subject fully
dealt with in the annual report for 1894 (page 166). There
can be no doubt as to the genuineness of the complaints,
which receive confirmation from Willesden, the inhabitants
of that district suffering when Kensington people have no
ground for complaint, and vice versa ; the incidence of nuisance
varying with change in the direction of the wind. The
matter having been referred to the Law and Parliamentary
Committee, they reported that—
" By section 29 of the Gas Works Clauses Act, 1847,
which applies to the Gas Light and Coke Company,
the Company is not to be exempted from
indictment for nuisance, or any other legal proceeding
to which they may be liable, in consequence
of making or supplying gas ; and in a case
decided in 1877, it was held that a Gas Company
was not entitled to create a nuisance in exercising
their statutory powers or in carrying out their
statutory obligations (Attorney-General v. Gas
Light and Coke Company, 7 Ch. D. 217)."
The Committee therefore advised the Sanitary Committee
that "if there be evidence of a substantial public nuisance
caused by the Gas Light and Coke Company, the Vestry are
entitled to proceed by indictment, or for an injunction to
secure its abatement."
Accordingly, your Vestry addressed a communication to
the Company calling their attention to the complaints and
intimating that observation would be kept up, so that on any
recurrence of the nuisance proceedings may be instituted in
regard thereto. A reply was received from the Company