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the works required to form these meadows into a Park, have occupied a
considerable part of the year, and many technical difficulties have arisen
in reference to them.
On the 13tli May the Vestry approved the plans which had been
prepared for a concrete wall with a brick face, but later on, in June,
rescinded their previous resolution, and decided that the wall should be
constructed entirely of concrete.
On the 9th September the London County Council agreed to contribute
£5,000 towards the cost of the work, and I was ordered to proceed with
the plans and specifications. On the 18th November various alternatives
were submitted to the Committee, and decisive instructions given for the
final completion of the plans and specifications, and, in January, the plans
were submitted to the London County Council in accordance with the
terms of their resolution granting their contribution of £5,000.
CROMWELL ROAD BRIDGE.
The probabilities of the construction of this proposed Bridge, which is
so necessary for the development of the part of Fulham known as West
Kensington, do not seem to be more favourable.
Negotiations have taken place between the Loudon County Council and
the Vestry in reference to the proportion of cost to be paid by the Council,
the Vestry, and a betterment rate, for a Bridge, 50 feet wide, with 60 feet
wide approaches, and estimated to cost £65,500. It was finally decided
that, if the Council paid one-third, the Vestry would pay two-thirds,
recoupiug itself as to one-third by a betterment rate, levied on an area in
the Fulham District extending half-a-mile from the Fulham end of the
Bridge. Application was accordingly made to Parliament by the Council
for their sanction to this proposal, which was opposed by the Great
Western Railway and the London and North-Western Railway Companies
jointly, and an owner of land on the site of the proposed approaches.
The Committee of the House of Commons would not sanction the principle
of the betterment rate, and the part of the Bill relatiug to the Cromwell
Road Bridge was accordingly withdrawn by the Council.
The principle of betterment, or "melioration," as it is called by
Mr. Samuel Pepys in his diary on the 3rd December, 1667, was admitted
and acted upon in the improvements which took place in the City of
London after the Great Fire in 1666, and as so many of the owners of
property living in West Kensington are perfectly willing to pay it, and
admit the Bridge would cause their properties to increase from 10 to 12 per
cent, in value, it is somewhat surprising that the Committee should have
rejected the Bill.
It should be borne in mind by all Local Authorities when Railway Companies
are seeking fresh Parliamentary powers for works in their district,
that, should a neighbourhood increase so that additional bridges over the
line are required, a railway will generally be found a greater obstruction to