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cost of such maintenance, without any power being given to the
Council to exercise control in any way as to the manner in which
the road shall be dealt with. Thus, in the case of a main road
running through several parishes and districts, a part may be paved
with wood, another with granite, another with asphalte, and yet
another part may be macadamised, at the will of the respective local
authorities; but the Council, on the report of its Surveyor, that
each part of the road has been properly maintained and repaired,
will have to pay a sum, to be agreed upon from time to time, for
the cost of maintenance, without having any power to direct that
the system of maintenance of the road shall be uniform throughout
its entire length. This appears to your Committee to be an
arrangement which requires some alteration, either in the direction
of relieving the Council of its responsibility, or, if such responsibility
be retained, of giving the Council some power of control
over the manner in which the money is to be expended and of
requiring continuity in the system of paving or otherwise to be
adopted with regard to the road.
The question whether a road has been maintained in a satisfactory
condition, which must be decided each time before the Council's
contribution is paid, would probably give rise to constant friction.
In the case of a road passing through several parishes, the work of
repair and maintenance in one district may have been done to the
satisfaction of the Council's Surveyor, while in the adjoining
parish the work may not have been satisfactorily performed ; and
should the Council require any particular standard of maintenance
to be observed, as a preliminary to the payment of its contribution,
great dissatisfaction might arise.
The Local Government Act provides (section 11, sub-section 7)
that where the Council declares a thoroughfare to be a main road,
such declaration shall not take effect until the road has been placed
in proper repair and condition to the satisfaction of the Council.
Some of the Vestries and District Boards have expended considerable
sums in putting the thoroughfares in their districts into a
state of proper repair, which sums have been borrowed on loan, and
are in course of repayment, but in some districts where the roads
are not in good condition, the expenditure before the declaration of
the Council could take effect would probably be very large, and it
might be a hardship to compel local authorities to embark at very
short notice on an expenditure which they had not contemplated,
and which might interfere with the carrying out of other and more
pressing requirements. At the same time, it would be manifestly
unfair to the other districts of London if the Council were to
accept the responsibility of the cost of the future maintenance of
roads which were not at the first in good and proper condition.
Under the Local Government Act the duty of maintaining those
roads in the County of London which have been disturnpiked since
31st December, 1870, devolves upon the Council, but the local
authorities have the same power of retaining the management of
the portions of these roads in their respective districts, as in the case
of roads to be declared by the Council to be main roads, and the
Council is to make a payment towards the cost. Your Committee