London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1909

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]

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6o
plied the unskilled labour, and the London County Council surrendered
the strips of Tooting' Common required for the Tooting
Bee Road improvement.
91. By an arrangement entered into many years ago, the
Borough Council's predecessors, the late District Board, in consideration
of an annual payment of £20 by the London, Brighton
and South Coast Railway Co., undertook the maintenance, for
which the Company was responsible, of the road on the bridge,
and the approaches thereto, carrying Tooting Bee Road over the
railway. As the scheme of work to be carried out by the Central
(Unemployed) Body in this road affected the approaches to the
bridge, application was made for the consent of the Railway Company,
and an agreement was entered into under which the Company
agreed to the proposal, and the above-mentioned annual
payment was reduced from £20 to £10.
92. The Borough Council also submitted to the Central Body
a scheme of work for the improvement of Greyhound Lane,
Streatham, between Eardley Road and the Graveney Brook. The
estimated cost was £560 (unskilled labour, £410; materials and
cartage, £150), and the Borough Council offered to bear the cost
of the materials and cartage. The Central Body considered that
the work was of a suitable nature to be undertaken by unemployed
labour, but as the cost would eventually be borne by
the frontagers, they were only prepared to entertain the proposal
upon payment by the Council of a sum equal to the fair value of
the work executed. Under these circumstances, the Council
decided not to proceed further with the scheme.
93. The work of embanking and fencing the two strips of
land between Garratt Lane and the River Wandle, near
McMurray's Mills, and laying the same out as a shrubbery, was
carried out with unemployed labour, under the supervision of the
London County Council. On completion of the work the future
maintenance of the shrubbery was undertaken by the Borough
Council, pursuant to the arrangement previously made with the
County Council.
94. The Borough Council continued the loan to the Vacant
Land Cultivation Society of several small pieces of vacant land in
various parts of the Borough for cultivation by the unemployed,