View report page

30
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
Part II of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, as amended by various
London County Council (General Powers) Acts, contains the main provisions
relating to sewerage and drainage. The Borough Engineer and Surveyor's
Department is responsible for the construction and maintenance of sewers vested
in the Borough Council but responsibility in relation to the discharge of trade
effluents into sewers is shared by the Borough Engineer and Surveyor's
Department and the Public Health Department. In the majority of premises of
all types in the Borough both the surface water and sewage discharge into the
same drain. In a large percentage of premises in the Borough the combined
drainage system operates, i.e. the sewerage from more than one dwelling
discharges into a common outlet drain. The five cesspools still in use take
the drainage of one dwelling house, two business premises, a Civil Defence
Centre and dressing rooms on playing fields and are emptied by the Borough
Engineer and Surveyor's Department's staff as and when circumstances require.
When a combined drain is found to be defective a notice is served under Section
40 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936 upon the owner of the land or
premises in respect of which an inspection has been made under sub-section 1 of
Section 40, and if the person upon whom such a notice has been served is
aggrieved thereby, he has the right of appeal to a magistrate's court. The
court hearing the appeal may apportion the cost of the work between the owners
of the various properties involved.
Action under the various public health enactments was taken during the
year as follows:-
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1936
SECTION 34 (Drainage Bylaws). A total of seventy-one plans of proposed
drainage works were submitted to the Public Health Committee. Informal notices
were served in respect of contraventions of the bylaws at ninety-two premises
and a total of eight-three formal notices were served. Legal proceedings
were instituted in three instances.
SECTION 40 (Inspection of Drains). Notice of intention to examine drains was
served in respect of 139 premises and eight-two notices requiring the repair
of defective drains were issued and these were followed in two instances by
legal proceedings.