London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Rotherhithe 1898

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Rotherhithe]

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49
1. That the closing of surface sewer ventilators, in response to complaints, increases the
general evil, the diminution of which is to be attained by the multiplication of ventilators,
both surface and uptake shafts, at regular frequent intervals.
2. That in connection with any interceptor hereafter fixed on a main house drain it is desirable
to carry up a ventilating pipe from the sewer side of the interceptor to the front,
side or back of the house to the satisfaction of the local sanitary authority, and that the
outlet drain from the interceptor shall not be flap-trapped in sewer unless required by Local
Sanitary Authority.
3. That pipe ventilators up buildings or otherwise, where possible, should always be
adopted, in addition to surface ventilation.
Telephone Service.
On 17th May, 1898, Mr. Chairman Bisley, J.P., and Messrs. Mortimer and Streeton were
appointed to represent the Vestry at a Conference proposed to be called by the London
County Council to consider as to what evidence should be put before the Select Committee
appointed by the House of Commons upon the subject of the Telephone Service.
On 21st June, 1898, Mr. Mortimer reported that, in company with the Chairman, lie
attended the Conference at the County Hall, on the 14tli June, 1898, upon the above subject,
when the following resolutions were passed: —
1. That in the opinion of this Conference the present telephone service of the London
area, as supplied by the National Telephone Company, is both inefficient and inadequate,
that the charges, as compared to those made by the same Company in the provinces, are
much too high, and that these disadvantages to London are largely due to the abandonment
by the Post Office of that principle of competition which was expressly adopted prior to
1892 for the protection of telephone users.
2. That this Conference views with alarm the action of the Post Office in using, for
the benefit of the National Telephone Company, its special powers as to the breaking up
of streets, as instanced in the recent case of the Commissioners of Sewers and the Post
Office, and urges the Select Committee on Telephones, which is now sitting at the
House of Commons, to preserve intact that control over the streets which has hitherto
been vested in the municipal authority.