View report page

18
I have just learnt that the County Council hope to be able
to persuade the Kent Water Company to provide a constant
supply to houses on the top of Shooters' Hill, though there is
no power to compel this. If successful, great advantage will
accrue to that part of the parish.
The Vestry took proceedings against the owner of the White
Cottage, in Bostal Woods, in order to obtain a closing order,
on the ground that this house was without a proper and
sufficient water supply. Water was supplied at the cottage to
visitors to the woods, and it was, therefore, specially desirable
that there should be a pure and plentiful supply. But the
only source of pure water was a house over a quarter-of-a-mile
distant. The magistrate held that the Public Health Act required
water to be laid on to every house, and accordingly
made a closing order.
Water has also been laid on to the Old Manor House, as the
result of a similar summons.
53. Sewer Ventilation.—I have already stated, in para. 33,
that 21 new ventilating shafts have been erected, and 15 open
manholes have been closed.
I am glad to be able to say, that the fear I expressed in my
last report, that nuisances would arise by sewer gas passing
from the shafts to the upper windows of houses on a higher
level has not been realised. So far, I have heard no complaints
of this nature, and the shafts seem to be fulfilling their end
satisfactorily.
There were, during the year, very numerous and repeated
complaints of nuisance from the open manholes, largely due,