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Board of Works for the Westminister District.
THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
of
THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD.
1. Relieved during the past year from the labour of organization,
which in the previous year had pressed heavily upon the time
of its members, the Board has been enabled, since the date of its
last Report, to turn its attention to other and more important
matters. Chief among these may be instanced the state and
circumstances of the Vauxhall Bridge Road, which, upon inquiry,
were found to be of a most anomalous character: the inhabitants,
while contributing equally with others to the cost of maintaining
the whole District, being, by the operation of the Vauxhall Bridge
Company's Act, wholly deprived of the advantages attending a care
and supervision by the Board; and being moreover subject to a toll
in respect of carriage traffic along the road. After a careful
inquiry, the Board, finding it impossible to remedy the serious
evils resulting from the preceding facts without an application to
Parliament, and having obtained the consent of the Vauxhall
Bridge Company, and of the principal owners of property abutting
on the road, as signified by their contributing towards the cost,
determined to present a Bill to Parliament, having for its object
the transfer of the road from the Vauxhall Bridge Company to the
local authorities of the respective parishes through which it passes,
and making arrangements, enabling this Board, with the consent
of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, &c., and upon
certain terms and conditions, to take under their power and control
the road from the centre of the entrance to the Penitentiary, to
Millbank Row. The Bill has now received the sanction of Parliament,
and the Board will immediately proceed to remedy many
evils of long standing and the subject of frequent complaint.
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