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29
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 wnich 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 eighty-six plans of proposed
drainage works were submitted to the Public Health Committee. Informal
notices were served in respect of contraventions of the bylaws at 113 premises
and a total of ninety-one formal notices were served. Legal proceedings were
instituted in fifteen instances.
SECTION 40 (Inspection of Drains). Notice of intention to examine drains
was served in respect of 91 premises; and eighty-eight notices requiring
the repair of defective drains were issued and these were followed in five
instances by legal proceedings. Appeals were lodged against seven notices
involving twenty-five premises and in each case the Court made an Order
apportioning the cost of the work among the owners concerned.