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53
Plans for the making of drains in new and existing houses, including
additions and amendments, were deposited to the number of 656 during the year.
Bye-laws as to Drainage.—On the 1st August, an Act (62 and 63 Vict., Cap 15)
to amend the provisions of the Metropolis Management Acts with respect to
Bye-laws received Royal assent. The principal provision of this Act relates to the
deposition of plans, sections, and particulars before constructing drainage, and runs
as follows in Section 2 :—
2. The powers of the London County Council for making bye-laws under
Section 202 of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, shall extend and
apply to authorise the Council to make bve-laws for the following
purpose:
Requiring persons about to construct, reconstruct, or alter the pipes,
drains, or other means of communicating with sewers, or the
traps and apparatus connected therewith, to deposit with the
sanitary authority of the district such plans, sections, and particulars
of the proposed construction, reconstruction, or alteration
as may be necessary for the purpose of ascertaining whether
such construction, reconstruction, or alteration, is in accordance
with the statutory provisions relative thereto, and with any
bye-laws made under the said section.
Provided that any such bye-laws shall not require the deposit of any plan or
section in the case of any repair which does not involve the alteration or
the entire reconstruction of any such pipe, drain, or other means of communicating
with sewers, or the traps and apparatus connected therewith.
Provided that any such bye-laws shall not require the deposit of any plans,
sections, and particulars before the work is commenced in any case in
which the alteration of the drains must be carried out at once, but the
bve-laws may require such deposit to be made within a limited time from
the commencement of the work.
The importance of this amending Act lies in the fact that there was no
provision in the Metropolis Management Acts requiring notice to be given of the
repair, alteration, extension or reconstruction of existing drains. The only
provision for notice to be given to the Vestry or District Board was in the case of
connecting a drain with a public sewer, when seven days' notice must be given in
writing, under Section 76 of the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1.855 (18 & 19
Vict., c. 120), before making such a drain.
There is no prohibition and no penalty for making a sewer without the consent
of a Vestry or District Board. The Metropolis Local Management Act, 1862
(25 & 26 Vict., c. 102), Section 47, only provides that in case a sewer is to be made
or branched into a public sewer the sanction, in writing, of the Vestry or District
Board shall first be obtained, and Section 61 provides for a penalty in default of
obtaining the sanction before making the connection with the public sewer. There
is, therefore, nothing to prevent the conversion of any house drain into a sewer by
diverting a waste pipe, or rain-water pipe, or gutter, from one house into the drain
of another house, and if this take place at the rear the whole house-drain becomes
a sewer, maintainable by the Vestry or District Board, and the owner has relieved
himself of all liability.