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44
2. Q.—Are they prepared to do so on the terms set out in the
Board's circular of the 18th March last?
A.—This Council have fully considered the Board's circular letter
of 18th March last, and as the question of finance is not so much a matter
of the building of the houses as the administration thereof, this Council are
not prepared to build a number of small houses in this district which would
become a very heavy burden, and one to which the London County Council
and the Middlesex County Council do not contribute with reference to the
Education Rate, which at the present time is 2s. 9½d. in the £, and would
thereby be very much increased, as this is one of the poorest Urban District
Councils in England, taking into consideration the rateable value with
the population, and we somewhat hesitate to launch upon a huge scheme
without some definite ruling as to the equalization of rates. [What is the
real meaning of this long and involved sentence? I know not.]
3. Q.—When will their schemes be ready for submission to the
Board with the particulars asked for in the circular above referred to, and
for how many houses will they provide?
A.—The answer to this question is governed by the answers to questions
Nos. 1 and 2.
4. Q.—Have the necessary sites been (a) selected; (b) acquired?
A.—As No. 3.
5. Q.—Is there any work such as the development of the housing
sites and the construction of roads, sewers, etc., which can be put in hand
immediately when demobilization begins, without waiting for the final
approval of the plans of the houses?
A.—As No. 3.
A Latin scholar would describe this attitude as "non possumus."
In March the Public Health Committee were informed of the views of the
Bishop of Willesden as regards the houses in the eastern end of Bridport Road.
They were not laudatory, or flattering to the Council. In the same month the
Council refused an offer of 8 acres of land off Cavendish Road at £330 per
acre, and wrote off as irrecoverable a debt of £72 odd due from Mrs. E. Toplis
for repair to 52, 54, and 68, West Street.
PorlockRoad. I referred to the proposal to build houses here in my
Annual) Report of 1916. The plan No. 3,177 was submitted in September,
1916, for the erection of 29 houses at rates of no less than 24 to the acre, i.e.,
double the maximum number now permitted by the Local Government Board.
In April our Architect (Mr. H. W. Dobb) reported that six houses had been
built in Porlock Road, and he reminded the Plans Committee " that nowhere
in the bylaws, nor in any Local Government Act, is it incumbent upon a
builder to await the approval of the Local Authority to the deposited plans
before commencing the erection of such buildings!"