View report page

WORK OF THE ESTATES COMMITTEE.
The following summary of the principal matters dealt with by the Estates Committee
during the past year has been prepared by Mr. A. Powell Coke, Clerk to the Committee.
The Committee sustained a severe loss in the death of their Chairman, Alderman
A. Davis, J.P. During his long association with the Council he had always specially
identified himself with the problem of the housing of the people, and his practical knowledge
and experience were ungrudgingly given in connection with the inception, development, and
progress of the Council's schemes in that direction. As a result of his death, Councillor
W. C. Wood was appointed Chairman, and Councillor R. J. Smerdon, Deputy Chairman.
The Committee controls 478 dwellings, consisting chiefly of flats, in different parts of
the Borough. The demand for housing accommodation continues unabated. Flats seldom
become empty, less than twenty having been vacated during the past twelve months, and no
difficulty is experienced in filling the vacancies from the waiting list.
Brookfieid Estate.
The Committee had under consideration a proposal that the pathway extending from
the upper end of Croftdown Road to Chester Road should be closed to the public. This
passage is the remainder of the pathway which originally extended to York Rise, the other
portion having been closed by an Order of the Court of Sessions at the time when the new
Croftdown Road was formed. Nuisances are committed in the public way, and its use by
children is a source of annoyance to the tenants of the flats adjoining. The authorities of
St. Anne's School, and the tenants and owners of one house in Chester Road and three houses
in Bertram Street have access to it. The Council's solicitors advised that certain difficulties
presented themselves in making application for a Closing Order, and suggested that the
owners who have openings from their gardens on to the pathway might have to be accommodated
with an alternative means of access. There was also the question of the ownership of
the soil of the footpath in the event of a Closing Order being obtained. The estimated cost
of the structural alterations consequent upon a Closing Order being made was £287, and
there would have to be added probable compensation, apart from the cost of obtaining the
Order. In view of the difficulties presented, the Committee adjourned the question sine die,
but decided to consider later as to replacing the defective fencing along the pathway.
Consideration was given to the necessity for erecting a fence along the portion of the
gardens at the side of the last block of maisonettes in Croftdown Road, abutting upon the
school path. The tenants complained of nuisances caused by children climbing over the
dwarf wire fence, and it was decided to erect a length of palisade fencing, 6ft. in height,
along the boundary.
The temporary wooden fence along the block of flats fronting Chester Road has been
taken down. This fence was retained when the contractor left the work, as it was thought
necessary to protect the privet hedge until it became established.