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case where by virtue of any enactment therein contained, the
Company shall have suspended or carried a telephone wire over,
along or across any land or road, the Local Government Board
shall upon credible information being given them that any such
telephone wire is or is likely to become dangerous to the public
safety, make an inquiry into and inspect the condition of the
telephone wire complained of, and make such order with respect
thereto and upon such terms as may seem to be necessary and
expedient in the public interest under the circumstances of the
case and the Local Government Board also of their own motion
and without receiving any such information may from time to
time after twenty-four hours' notice to the Company, proceed to
inspect, test, examine and enquire into the state of repair and
condition of any telephone wires or posts to which such notice
shall refer, and may make such order as to the removal, repair or
alteration of any telephone wires or posts as shall seem to the
Local Government Board necessary for the protection of the
public.
(9.) That your Petitioners, the Board of Works for the Fulham
District, are constituted the local authority over the said District,
and vested with various powers under the Metropolis Local
Managements Acts,—including the control of the streets, the
public sawers, etc.
(10.) That the Fulham District comprises an area of over four
thousand acres, and your petitioners have at present under their
care and control upwards of sixty-four miles of "roads" as defined
by the Act, that there are existing very many miles of new
roads or streets not yet under the care and control of your
petitioners, that building operations are progressing at a rapid
rate in the Fulham District, and that very shortly there will be
very many miles of roads or streets added to those at present
under the control of your petitioners.
(11.) That your petitioners strongly object to the Act for the
following, among other reasons:—
(i.) That the erection, suspension, and maintaining of overhead
"telephone wires" (i.e., wire, or wires, with casing,
coating, or tube, &c., containing the same), over, along, or
across any land, or road, or building, within your petitioners'
district, will become a source of great danger to the
inhabitants and to the public generally.
(ii.) That the erection and maintenance of "posts" (i.e., post,
pole, standard, stay, strut, or other above ground contrivance)
in or upon any land or road within your petitioners'
district, and the suspension of "telephone wires" therefrom
will create serious obstruction, annoyance, and inconvenience