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78
TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS
of the
Walthamstow Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my report on the work
carried out through my department during the year 1904.
In doing so I desire to call the attention of the Council to the
desirability of supervision being exercised over the position in new
houses of the cisterns provided for the drinking water supply. A very
large number of them are still placed in such positions as to be quite
inaccessible for cleaning or even inspection, and it would be well if
such a provision as that contained in the East Ham Improvement
Act were in forCe, viz.:— "The Council may from time to time make
bye-laws for securing the cleanliness and freedom from pollution of
tanks, cisterns and other receptacles used for storing water used or
likely to be used for drinking or domestic purposes, or for manufacturing
drink of any sort."
May I further quote from a previous annual report of mine "Attention
may be drawn to the need for greater powers under the drainage
bye-laws in certain details as to the construction of drains, etc. The
enforcement of the provision of inspection chambers, the prescription
of the materials of which soil and ventilating pipes should be composed,
and the conditions under which a drain should be watertight are of
sufficient importance to require regulations, and a still more necessary
requirement is that contained in the recent regulations of the London
County Council, approved by the Local Government Board, that these
bye-laws shall apply to any person so far as he shall effect any such
works in any building erected before the confirmation of these bye-laws
as if the same were being constructed in a building newly erected."
The exceedingly perishable material used for drain ventilating pipes
lasts only a very short time, with the result that they are constantly