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In opening the proceedings the Chairman stated that it had been ascertained that the
standing orders of the Council will not admit of more than 10 persons from one body being
received as a deputation, and a Memorial must be presented to the Council setting forth the
reasons to be adduced in favour of the object in view, and in order that the deputation to the
Council may be as representative as possible, it has been suggested that each Vestry and District
Board abutting upon the rivpr both above and below Bridge, be requested to adopt a Memorial,
appoint two delegates, and separately request the Rivers Committee of the Council to receive
such delegates as a deputation at their meeting on Monday, the 27th September, 1897, and
submitted draft Memorial, setting forth reasons why the piers should be freed from toll:
THE MEMORIAL of
to the London County Council praying them to obtain, as soon as possible, the necessary powers
from Parliament to enable them to free the Piers of the River Thames, which are used for
purposes of public traffic, from all tolls.
1. The River Thames is both at law and in fact a public highway, and at one time was the
chief means of communication that London possessed for all kinds of traffic. The
improvement of streets and the changes in the methods of locomotion have made the
Thames Highway perhaps of less importance than formerly, having regard to the large
increase of the number of inhabitants in London, but the traffic on the River has not in
any way decreased, and the River is largely used within the area of the County of
London both for the carriage of goods and the conveyance of foot passengers.
2. The public policy in the past of the governing body for the London Highways has been
consistent for many years, and it has always desired to facilitate traffic in the County.
All the Bridges have been freed from tolls; and bars and barriers, where tolls had to be
paid within the area of the County, have been done away with. The Bridges are now
maintained by the Council, and your Memorialists urge that for the interest of the
important traffic of the River, the Piers should be freed from toll and maintained by
them in the Bame way, in pursuance of the policy and for the same urgent reasons that
induced them to free the Bridges.
3. In the cases where this has been done, large sums of money have been paid in
compensation. In the case under consideration it is anticipated that the compensation