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238
1910]
With respect to unhealthy areas, it is the duty of a sanitary authority
when an official representation is made to them, viz.: one by the Medical
Officer of Health, that any houses, courts, alleys, etc., are unfit for human
habitation, or that the narrowness, closeness, or bad arrangement, or the bad
condition of streets of houses or groups of houses, or the want of light or
ventilation, or proper conveniences, or any other sanitary defects, or one or
more of such causes, are dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants
living in the buildings in the area or in neighbouring buildings, to pass a
resolution to the effect that such area is an unhealthy one, and that an improvement
scheme ought to be made in connection with it, and after passing
this resolution they shall proceed to make a scheme for the improvement of
the area.
As a rule, every scheme affecting an area must provide for the accommodation
in suitable dwellings of at least as many persons of the working classes
as may be displaced, and such dwellings, unless there be special reason for
contrary action, must be within the limits of the area or its vicinity. There are,
however, two exceptions to this rule. In the first place, if the Local Government
Board are satisfied that accommodation can be provided at some other place
within the area or its vicinity, or that the necessary accommodation has been
or is about to be provided either by the local authorities or other persons, the
Board may authorise the scheme, and its requirements will be deemed to have
been complied with.
In the second place the local authority may apply for a dispensation, and
the Local Government Board may dispense with the obligation to provide
accommodation if the official that conducted the Local Inquiry, for a Local
Inquiry must always be held before a scheme is sanctioned, reports that it is
expedient to grant it.
If the Local Authority fail to pass a resolution respecting a scheme after
an official representation has been made, they must forthwith send a copy of
the representation and their reasons for not acting upon it to the Local
Government Board, who, if they are satisfied that a scheme ought to have
been made, may order the Local Authority to make it, and to do all things
necessary under the Housing Acts for carrying the scheme into execution.
Part II. of the principal Act relates to unhealthy dwellings, and deals
with the closing and demolition of unhealthy houses, and with the removal of
buildings which though themselves are not unfit for habitation are an obstruction
to the good sanitary conditions of neighbouring houses.