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60
General Purposes Committee recommended that the Memorandum
he forwarded to the Local Government Board, "with
the view to the attention of the President being especially
directed thereto in connection with a recent resolution of the
Managers regarding the compulsory acquisition of additional
land adjacent to the existing sites of the Infectious Hospitals
of the Board." The report of the Committee was adopted by
the Managers.
The Local Government Board (in May) expressed an
opinion that if compulsory power of purchase was given it
should only be to enable the Managers to obtain a Provisional
Order, such Order requiring confirmation of Parliament.
The Managers thereupon expressed their desire to
obtain an Order for the compulsory purchase of four acres
of additional land, adjoining the Hospital at Fulham, which
it was considered would be amply sufficient to accommodate
150 additional beds, at the rate of 50 beds to the acre,
leaving the fourth acre, with the exception of a small portion
reserved as an addition to the adjoining Ambulance Station, as
neutral ground between the (proposed) new buildings and the
boundary wall, on which, in times of exceptional pressure,
temporary structures might be erected. In November the
Board informed the Managers that there was no authority under
which an Order could be issued authorising them to acquire
land compulsorily; so, of course, nothing could be done.
Considerable opposition was offered to the proposal to enlarge
the hospital, and meanwhile the London and North-Western
Railway made arrangements for securing the land for their own
purposes. The Managers thereupon petitioned against the
Company's Bill, and the Company objected to the locus standi
of the Board. Thus the matter rests at the present time.*
* The Court of Referees decided against the Managers on the question
of their locus standi for petitioning against the Bill; the Managers thereupon
took the necessary steps to present a petition against the Bill in the
House of Lords, and to instruct Counsel to support their locus standi.