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75
COMBINED DRAINAGE.
Combined drainage being a most serious question for the Board,
I devoted a large amount of time in examining the records in charge
of the London County Council, and I presented to the Board the
following :—
SPECIAL REPORT : " SEWER OR DRAIN."
To the Chairman and Members of the Board of Works for the Poplar
District.
Gentlemen,
At a meeting of the Sanitary Committee held 23rd May, 1895,
I reported that I had been to the offices of the London County
Council, and had inspected the drainage and sewer petitions and plans
deposited with the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers from 1848
to 1855, when cesspools were abolished and compulsory drainage into
sewers enforced, since which date plans of house drainage have been
deposited with the respective local authorities.
As the date on the petitions is the possible key to finding the orders
of the Metropolitan Commissioners, the search through the minutes
and Court papers, and minutes and papers of the various Committees,
&c., is facilitated.
I suggested to the Committee that the London County Council be
asked to have these petitions properly indexed, and printed copies ot
the index forwarded to each sanitary authority. Failing the Council
complying with this request, I suggested as the petitions are all mixed
and bound together, that the Poplar Board approach all the sanitary
authorities included under the then head of the Tower Hamlets
Division and the Poplar and Blackwall District—and ask them to
combine together to appoint a skilled person to index the petitions,
so that each local authority may have a copy. The expense of doing
this would be trifling, the saving of time in searching would be very
great, and, moreover, the petitions themselves would be preserved