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11
The Sewers are ventilated by means of man-holes opening on
the surface of the streets and by shafts carried several feet above
the level of the ground. Complaints are received from time to time
about the escape of sewer gas from these openings.
In my last Report I referred to a series of complaints from residents
in the neighbourhood of Elmers End Station about the offensive
odours from the Croydon Sewage Farm.
The Croydon Corporation have installed a number of new filter
beds and these are now working, and it is hoped that there will not
be a recurrence of this nuisance. During the winter months there
have not been any complaints, but it is chiefly in the close summer
evenings that the nuisance is so objectionable, and it remains to be
seen whether the new filter beds will completely remove this cause
of complaint during the summer.
CESSPOOLS.
In 1882 and subsequent years when the sewering of Beckenham
was carried out, the old cesspools were done away with, and the
houses connected to sewers. Since that time isolated houses connected
to cesspools have gradually been connected to the sewers
when such were extended.
There are at present five dwelling houses connected to cesspools.
These houses are in every instance beyond the legal distance within
which the Owners can be called upon to connect them with the
District Sewers.
SURFACE WATER DRAINAGE.
Beckenham is intersected or bordered by four main streams, the
Birkbeck Stream, Chaffinch Brook, Beck River (these three joining
to form the Poole River), and the Ravensbourne River, into which
latter the Poole River discharges at Lewisham. Into these main