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48
Metropolis Local Management Act, 1862.
Sec, 112 ******
the word " drain " shall be deemed to apply to and include the subject-matters
specified in the two hundred and fiftieth section of the firstly-recited Act, and also
any drain for draining a group or block of houses by a combined operation, laid or
constructed before the 1st day of January, 1856, pursuant to the order or direction
or with the sanction or approval of the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers.
******
In London, therefore, we have this position, that the " drain " also includes
" any drain for draining any group or block of houses by a combined operation
under the order of any Vestry or District Board" and it is " lawful for such
Board or Vestry to order that such group or block of houses be drained * *
* * * by a combined operation." This definition being subsequently
extended to include "any drain for draining a group or block of houses by a
combined operation, laid or constructed before the 1st day of January, 1856,
pursuant to the order or direction or with the sanction or approval of the
Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers."
A combined drain constructed before 1856, without the order or direction
or sanction or approval of the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers is illegally
constructed, and a combined drain constructed subsequently to 1855, without
the order of the Yestry or District Board, is also illegally constructed.
As to combined drains constructed subsequently to 1855, it would be
advisable for your Yestry to have extracted from the Minutes and indexed all
the orders made by your Vestry for this purpose, and I would beg to recommend
that this course be adopted.
As to combined drains constructed prior to 1856, it would also be advisable
for your Vestry to cause (o be extracted and indexed from the records of the
Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, in possession of the London County
Council, a list of all the applications made, and of the orders, directions,
sanctions, or approvals made or given by the Metropolitan Commissioners of
Sewers.
Even without any formal order or direction, if it is to be assumed that drains
were constructed with sanction or approval, the owners are responsible for their
maintenance, andif,having served their time and become defective andnuisances,
new drains require to be laid, Section 73 of the Act of 1855, above quoted, would
appear to apply.
REGENTS CANAL.
The notice served on the North Metropolitan Railway and Canal Company
on the 14th November, 1892, not having been complied with, your Vestry
decided on the 27th September, 1893,—
(a) That a further statutory notice be served on the North Metropolitan
Railway and Canal Company, requiring the Company to abate within
a period of seven days, certain nuisances existing in that portion of
the Regents Canal, in the Parish of St. Pancras, and for that
purpose:—