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66
would be further considered, and the County Council was asked to
furnish the Borough Council with an amended plan and detailed
estimate of the cost of the proposed improvement.
100. Considerable progress has been made by the London County
Council during the past year in acquiring property required for the
widening of thoroughfares for the proposed electrical tramways along
York Road, Red Lion Street, South Street, Garratt Lane, Defoe Road,
and Tooting High Street. By arrangement with the County Council,
the Borough Council is carrying out the work of paving the new footpaths
as the land is purchased by the County Council and the fences
set back. The Borough Council has also arranged for the lighting of
the widened thoroughfares and for the existing overhead telegraph
wires to be placed underground. The cost of these works will be
charged to the improvement. The question of the paving of the
footpaths having been satisfactorily settled, the Council has been
urging the London County Council to proceed with the work of constructing
the tramways and wood paving the carriageways. The
Improvements Committee of the County Council, however, stated that
having regard to the character of the traffic at present passing along
the thoroughfares they could not advise the County Council to incur
the very heavy additional expenditure which the use of wood instead
of macadam would entail. The amount provided for paving works in
the estimate of the cost of the widening of the thoroughfares in
question was £77,000, and the Borough Council expressed the opinion
that this was amply sufficient for the whole of the carriageways
to be paved with wood and of the footpaths with stone of the best
description. When the widening scheme was first put forward, the
Borough Council agreed to contribute one-third (not exceeding £91,316)
of the nett cost of the improvement upon the understanding that the
paving works would be carried out in this manner, and in 1903
approved a proposal of the County Council that the footpaths should
be paved with artificial stone, instead of York stone, thus greatly
reducing the cost. Under the circumstances, the Borough Council
decided to adhere to the original scheme for the paving of the carriageways
with wood.
101. These views were communicated to the County Council, and
the matter is under the consideration of that Council.