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166
The Purfleet Case.—In former reports I have referred
to the depot at Purfleet, as a place for the deposit of the
refuse of the Parish when no other more economical shoot was
available. A good deal of the refuse was consigned to Purfleet
last year, but the use of the depot was brought to an untimely
close by proceedings instituted against your Vestry by the
Orsett Rural District Council, in respect of an alleged effluvium
nuisance caused by the deposited refuse. The summons was
heard before a Bench of County Magistrates sitting in Petty
Sessions at Grays, on the 29th May and 9th June, when the
case was adjourned, upon the application of your Vestry's counsel,
until the 10th July, to allow of the three Medical Officers of
Health, (viz., for the District Council, the County of Essex, and
the Port of London Sanitary Authority), who had given evidence
on behalf of the complainants, meeting your Vestry's Medical
Officer, and considering what steps could be taken with the
object of preventing nuisance from the deposit of house
refuse at the said depot. On the 10th July the subjoined
memorandum, which had been drafted by your Vestry's Medical
Officer, and signed by the four Medical Officers of Health,
was handed to the court, and, by consent, the summons was
further adjourned until the 6th November, it being understood
that the work should be carried on under the conditions laid down
in the memorandum, and that if the work were discontinued,
or could be carried on without nuisance to the inhabitants, the
Orsett Rural District Council would consent to withdraw the
summons subject to the payment of their reasonable costs by
the Vestry. The memorandum was as follows:—
"ORSETT RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL v. THE VESTRY OF
KENSINGTON.
alleged nuisance at the vestry's depot at purfleet.
"We, the undersigned, having met this day* at the Vestry's Depot
at Purfleet, and taken into consideration the steps which appear to
us to be necessary with the object of preventing nuisance from (he
deposit of house refuse at the said Depot, recommend as follows:—
(1.) That no refuse be deposited within fifty (50) yards of the
railway cottages or mills.
*June 25th, 1896.