View report page

12
tenents, giving them notice that if they did not execute the
necessary repairs, the Board would have to make and serve a
formal order under the Thames Floods Act, to have it done
within 28 days. The Board was far from satisfied with this
reply, thinking it intolerable that the district should week after
week be exposed to the danger of inundation whilst the
formality of serving notices was being gone through, and
resolved to appoint a deputation to wait upon the Metropolitan
Board at their next meeting, to lay the facts before them and
direct their attention to the insecurity of the barriers generally.
Accordingly a deputation was appointed, consisting of the
following Members, viz.—Messrs. Clarke, Goodwin, Haggis,
and Hale, who attended on the 4th January, 1889, the meeting
of the Metropolitan Board, which was held on that day and
presented the following Memorial:—
"To THE Metropolitan Hoard or Works,
The Memorial of the Board of Works for the Saint Saviour's
District.
Sheweth
That, by the Thames River (Prevention of Floods) Act, 1879, your
honourable Board is constituted the authority for requiring and enforcing
the construction and maintenance of flood works, for proventing
inundations caused by overflow of the River Thames.
That, shortly after the passing of the said Act, your honourable
Board caused clams or barriers to be erected in Bankside, and other
places, and permitted certain moveable barriers for the convenience
of wharfingers and others.
That, on the 4th December last, a barrier near Pond Yard, Banksidc,
was broken; and, on the same day, tho attention of your honourable
Board was called thereto by tho Surveyor to your Memorialists.
That, on the 6th December, an official of your honourable Board
called upon the Surveyor to your Memorialists, and stated that he
had seen the barrier, and would report as to the same.
That the barrier not having been repaired or reinstated, a letter
was, on the 20th December, by direction of your Memorialists,
addressed to your honourable Board relative thereto, and calling your
attention to the fact that there was a gap nearly twelve feet in width
open to the river, and constituting a serious danger to the district and
to the public at large.
Your Memorialists desire particularly to call the attention of your
honourable Board to the fact that for nearly twenty days the district
of your Memorialists was absolutely unprotected from any overflow of
the River Thames, and that, in consequence thereof, property to a .
vast extent was placed in jeopardy.