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removal of offensive matter is in conflict with the by-law of the Council operating within the administrative
county. The Public Health Committee reported on this subject to the Council as follows—
Onr attention has been called to a difficulty which is experienced with regard to the removal of
offensive matter owing to the hours during which such removal must be effected being different in the
County of London from those in that part of the Metropolitan Police District which is outside the
county.
Before the by-laws made by the Council under section 16 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
prescribing the times for removal and carriage of offensive matter, came into force, times were
prescribed by section 60 of the Police Act, 1839.
Section 142 and the fourth schedule of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, provide that the part
of section 60 of the Police Act dealing with this subject shall be repealed as from the coming into
operation of by-laws made for the like object.
This provision of the Police Act was operative over the Metropolitan Police District, but the
Council's by-laws only cause its repeal within the County of London.
The Council's by-laws require the removal of offensive matter to be effected between 4 a.m. and
10 a.m. in the summer, and between 6 a.m. and 12 noon in winter, while in the portion of the Metropolitan
Police District still subject to section 60 of the Police Act. removal is prohibited between 6 a.m.
and 8 p.m. all the year round.
The result of this is that it is impossible to effect the removal of offensive matter from within to
without London in the winter without contravening either the Council's by-laws or the Police Act. A
person may not start removing in London until 6 a.m., and as soon as he gets outside the county he is
within the portion of the police district in which section 60 of the Police Act is in force, and as it must
by that time be after 6 o'clock he at once becomes liable to a penalty for infringing that Act, which does
not allow him to remove in that district after 6 a.m.
We have received letters from Messrs. S. Hempleman and Co., stating that carmen employed by
them in removing fish offal from premises in London have been prosecuted and convicted at the West
Ham Police court for infringing section 60 of the Police Act, and they point out the impossibility of
complying with both the Council's by-laws and that section. They further state that they have called
the attention of the Commissioner of Police to the difficulty, but have received a reply to the effect that
the duties of the police are merely administrative, and that they are bound to see that both the Act of
Parliament and the by-laws are observed in their respective districts. The Commissioner suggested
that the provision of a receptacle for offal within the County of London might overcome the difficulty,
but Messrs. Hempleman point out that it would be some time before such a depot could be found, and
that it would probably be objected to by both the Council and the local sanitary authority.
We think it is very important that this refuse should be removed with the utmost possible dispatch,
and that it is undesirable that it should be stored in depots ; in fact such storage for more than twentyfour
hours would be in contravention of another of the Council's by-laws. We may point out that when
the Council's by-laws under the Public Health Act were being drafted the Local Government Board
expressed a strong view that offensive refuse should not be removed during the night time, when proper
supervision could not be exercised over its transport, but during the early hours of the day, when the
streets are not crowded and transport can be expeditiously effected.
In all the circumstances we think the proper course would be (1) to amend the Police Act, so far as
it deals with the circular area outside the County of London in the manner in which it has already been
amended, so far as the County of London is itself concerned, by the Public Health (London) Act, 1891;
(2) to make it obligatory upon sanitary authorities of districts within the circular area mentioned to
make by-laws such as the Councd now makes as regards London.
We accordingly propose that the Council should ask the Local Government Board to introduce a
bill with this object, and should inform the Commissioner of Police of the course taken with a view to
his considering whether, pending the decision of the Local Government Board, he would desire that no
further proceedings should be taken under section 60 of the Police Act in relation to hours of removal
of offensive matter. We recommend—
(a) That a letter be addressed to the Local Government Board, calling their attention to the
difficulty experienced with regard to the hours of removal of offensive matter, and asking them to
introduce a bill—
(1.) To amend the Police Act, 1839, so far as it deals with the circular area outside the
County of London, in the manner in which it has already been amended, so far as the County of
London is itself concerned, by the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
(2.) To make it obligatory upon sanitary authorities of districts within the circular area
mentioned to make by-laws such as the Council now makes as regards London.
(b) That the Commissioner of Police be informed of the action taken with a view to his considering
whether, pending the decision of the Local Government Board, he would desire that no
further proceedings should be taken under section 60 of the Police Act in relation to the hours of
removal of offensive matter.
The Public Health Committee of the Westminster Vestry, in consequence of complaints having
been made to them by tradesmen, of the difficulty experienced in obtaining the removal of fish offal
produced on their premises, ordered that facilities should be afforded tradesmen for shooting fish offal
at the vestry's wharf, Grosvenor-road ; a small charge being made for this service.
Removal of house ref use.
During the year the Public Health Department continued its investigations into the manner
in which London sanitary authorities were effecting the removal of house refuse so as to comply
with the requirements of the Council's by-law that this refuse should be removed not less frequently
than once in each week.
In February I reported to the Public Health Committee that further inquiry by the Council's
inspector at 247 houses in Holborn showed that there were accumulations of two weeks and upwards
in 10 per cent. of houses situated in streets in which a weekly call was made by the dust collectors at
each house, and in 57 per cent. of houses at which a weekly call was not made, but the occupiers had to
depend upon the exhibition of a D card in the window or upon hailing the collectors as they perambulated
the streets. The district board having issued a notice card to inhabitants that the dust collector would
call at each house each week, the inquiry was not pursued further, but in May was resumed and 876
houses visited. The Council's inspector found that the majority of houses were called at by the dust
collector, but there were accumulations of two weeks and upwards in 14 8 per cent., a result which
he attributed to the dust collector not calling on the appointed day, to the collection from business
premises being inconvenient to the house occupiers if made after 10 a.m., and to the continued