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63
Bakehouses.
At the end of 1904 there were 92 bakehouses in the City, of which
79 were underground. During the year 4 have been built above ground
(Savoy Hotel, Little Dean Street, Kinnerton Street, and 108, Brompton
Boad); and 1 underground, previously existing (78, Berwick Street)
was certified. There are therefore now 97 bakehouses, of which 17 are
above and 80 below ground, but the use as bakehouses of 3 of these has
been discontinued during the year.
Restaurants and Eating Houses.
Five hundred and forty-eight visits were paid to hotels, restaurants,
and eating bouses; 103 intimation notices were served to remedy
defects; in 1 case proceedings at the police-court had to be taken, but
at the hearing the owners undertook to do the necessary re-drainage,
and costs were paid.
I mentioned in my Report for 1903 that the London County
Council proposed to ask Parliament for powers to make some
regulations with regard to places where food was prepared, stored, or
sold. They did so; but as they also asked that they should control
the City and Borough Councils, and act in default, they were opposed
by several of the Metropolitan Municipal Authorities, including the
City of Westminster, with the result that Parliament restricted their
supervisory powers to those contained in Section 101 of the London
Public Health Act, which required a representation to be made to the
Local Government Board if a sanitary authority is alleged to be in
default.
The Solicitors of the City Council, in their report on the result of
the opposition, said:—
"By the action of the Committee of the House of Commons,
confirmed by the House of Lords, the principle was established that
the enforcement of new sanitary regulations of a merely permissive
character is not to be under the supervision of, or subject to the
arbitrary interference of the County Council; and the Borough
Councils were thus put into the same position (so far as those newsanitary
provisions are concerned) as are all similar local bodies all
over the country in regard to all their sanitary powers. The
power to the London County Council to set the Local Government
Board in motion in case of default of course continues, and
was cordially concurred in by the opposing Councils.
"The opposition to this part of the Bill was therefore entirely
successful, and its success is a matter of very considerable importance
to all the Borough Councils so far as it establishes a valuable
precedent.