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47
each authority can decide over what lengths of watercourse it will exercise
jurisdiction. The Thames Conservancy operate over the main stream of
the River Pinn down-stream from where it emerges under the railway
line between Hatch End and Headstone Lane Station, and the Woodridings
brook downstream from Nugents Park. The County Council exercise
their powers over the main stream of the Yeading brook downstream
from the Broadway, North Harrow, the Roxbourne brook downstream
from Malvern Avenue, the Wealdstone brook downstream from Becmead
Avenue, and the Edgware brook downstream from the junction of
Whitchurch Lane and Honeypot Lane. In regard to the other water
courses, neither the Thames Conservators nor the County Council will
exercise their permissive powers. In regard to the watercourses not the
responsibility of the conservators or the County Council, the powers of
the Corporation are contained in Section 269 of the Public Health Act,
1936 which refer to any ditch or water course which is found in
such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance and any part of
a watercourse which is so choked or silted up as to obstruct or impede
the proper flow of water and thereby cause a nuisance or give rise to
conditions prejudicial to health. The Section makes it an offence to throw
or deposit or other matter likely to cause annoyance in any river,
stream or water course. The weakness of the procedure for abating the
nuisance is the difficulty of finding the person by whose act, default or
suffering the nuisance arises or continues. If that person cannot be found,
notice may be served on the owner; and if the nuisance does not arise
by the act, default or sufferance of the owner or occupier, the local
authority may themselves do what they consider necessary to abate the
nuisance and to prevent a recurrence. Local proceedings were instituted
against a person for throwing verminous bones, tins and other rubbish
into the River Pinn.
The following are examples of what is happening:—"An almost
complete blockage which occurred in a 72-inch diameter culvert in the
Borough, caused by debris which could only have been deliberately cast
mto the open section of the watercourse. The removal of the articles
occupied a whole day, and they included the following items: Two
motor-car tyres; A perambulator; A roll of chain link fencing; Piece
of Timber, 4in. x 2in. x 4ft. long; Two broken chairs; Two bicycle
frames; Two bicycle wheels.
Serious Pollution also occurred recently in the watercourse between
alkeith Grove and the Seven Acre Lake, which was caused by the
umping of a cardboard container full of diesel oil.
Other common causes of blockage are hedge and grass cuttings,
mattresses, water tanks and cisterns, and milk crates."
Where the Corporation or the County Council are the riparian
owners of one or both banks, Corporation employees remove debris
from time to time and give necessary attention to the maintenance of the
banks. In other cases though, the powers of the Corporation are limited
to taking proceedings in appropriate cases. The River Authorities have
intimated that they are not prepared to extend the limits over which they
will exercise their permissive powers. The County Council then has been