Folio 125. To: Charles E Deacon, Town Clerk and Clerk to the Local Board of Health,...

Folio 125.

To: Charles E Deacon, Town Clerk and Clerk to the Local Board of Health, Southampton [Hampshire].

From: The General Board of Health.

Subject Matter: Draft letter acknowledging receipt of a letter dated 26 February 1856, on the subject of the circumstances attending the construction of certain sewers in the Town of Southampton by the local Commissioners previous to the introduction of the Public Health Act 1848 into the borough, and the subsequent proceedings of the Local Board in connection therewith. Deacon is advised that the difficulty set forth in his letter appears to the General Board to be one arising from different views of the facts of the case, rather than on the construction of the Statute. It is explained that if it appears to the Local Board that the premises in question were sufficiently drained before the execution of the sewers under he Public Health Act, they are bound to deduct from the amount of rates otherwise chargeable in respect of such premises, the sum they deem just; but if they are of opinion that the drainage of these houses was insufficient, as, for instance, that the sewage of the houses was not duly carried away to the proper outfall, they are not required to make any deduction. It is pointed out that in estimating the benefit mentioned in Section 86 of the Public Health Act, which accrues to a district from works of a permanent nature, it is not necessary to ascertain that the benefit is palpably felt by every individual person upon whom the assessment is made in order to assume that he shares, as an inhabitant of the district, in the general benefit which is sought to be obtained by the construction of the works in respect of which the rate is made. Deacon's attention is called to the case of Dorling v the Local Board of Epsom [Surrey], reported in the Times of 2 July 1855, and to the enclosed copy of the opinion of the Law officers of the Crown [not included in item], which bears on this subject.