Chapter XXXII

BORROWING UNDER THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.

There are a number of clauses in the Public Health Act 1875, which empower a local authority to borrow money on the credit of the rates for the purpose of “defraying any costs, charges and expenses incurred or to be incurred by them in the execution of the Sanitary Acts.” (_Vide_ 38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 233).

The exercise of these powers of borrowing are subject to the following regulations:

(1.) Money shall not be borrowed except for permanent works.[248]

(2.) The sum borrowed shall not exceed at any time, including all outstanding debts, the assessable value for two years of the district.

(3.) Where it exceeds the value of one year, the Local Government Board will not give their sanction until one of their inspectors has held a local enquiry.

(4.) The money cannot be borrowed for a longer time than 60 years, and it must be paid off within that time.

(5.) Certain regulations as to sinking funds, &c. (_Vide_ 38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 234 _et seq._)

The power to borrow money thus granted to local authorities has undoubtedly given a considerable stimulus to the execution of important sanitary works which could not be carried out if they had to be paid for out of the current rates. It is also a fair and equitable arrangement that permanent works should be paid for by those that reap the benefit of them, and it is now so arranged that the money borrowed is repaid within a certain specified time by equal annual payments, in order that the ratepayer of the present shall not be unduly taxed for the benefit of posterity.

No regular or fixed times have been settled by the Local Government Board over which they will allow the repayment of loans to be spread, but it appears that the duration of the proposed works somewhat guides the length of time allowed, as will appear from the following list which I have prepared from the eighth Annual Report of the Local Government Board:

Description of Work. Number of Years.

Purchase of land 50 to 60
Sewage disposal 30 „ 50
Sewerage works 30 „ 50
Water supply 20 „ 50
Fire brigade purposes 30 and 60
Market Purposes 30 „ 60
Plan of district 20 „ 30
Lamps for public lighting 10 „ 20
Artizans and Labourers’ Dwellings Act 50
Erection of hospital 30
„ „ public baths 30
„ „ slaughter-houses 30
„ „ buildings at sewage farm 30
A public park 50
Cemeteries 30
Gas supply 30
Street improvements 15 to 30
Paving[249] and channelling 15 „ 20
Stables, urinals, enginehouse 20
Construction of a new road 20
Disinfecting apparatus 20
Mortuary and weighing machine 15
Steam road roller 10

Whenever a local authority decide to make application to the Local Government Board for power to borrow money for any proposed improvements or works within their district, it is the duty of the town surveyor to prepare the necessary drawings and obtain the required information in order to fill in the forms which are supplied from the Local Government Board office.

With reference to this important part of his duty, I cannot do better than give the following Suggestions as to the Preparation of Plans of Proposed Works, by Robert Rawlinson, C.B., C.E., &c. (Chief Engineering Inspector to the Local Government Board), prepared by him in 1878:

“It will in all cases be necessary, upon application being made for sanction to a loan, for the execution of works, that plans (or tracings of the plans), sections, estimates in detail and specifications be submitted with the application, accompanied by information as to the population at the two last periods of the taking of the census, the rateable value of the district, and the amount of outstanding loans.”

“Such plans or tracings may be used for showing lines of main sewers, drains, water-pipes and gas-mains. The lines of main sewers and drains should have the cross sectional dimensions of the sewers and their gradients distinctly marked (written and figured) upon them. The dimensions of water and gas pipes should also be shown in figures or by writing.”

“N.B.--No general map should be submitted which is drawn to a scale of less than 6 inches to a mile, except when the inch ordnance map is used.”

“Maps upon which sewerage works or water works are to be shown, or for street improvements, should be not less than the ordnance scale of ¹⁄₂₅₀₀th.”

“The sections should be drawn to the same horizontal scale, and to a vertical scale of 20 feet to 1 inch.”

Any detailed plan for the purposes of house drainage, paving, the purchase of land &c., should be “constructed to a scale of not less than 10 feet to a mile, and upon this plan should be exhibited all houses and other buildings, bench marks, the levels of streets and roads, of cellars, of the sea at high and low tide level, and the summer and flood levels of rivers. 3 feet by 2 feet will be a convenient size for the sheets of this plan.”

“Enlarged detail plans and sections of sewers, side entrances, man-holes, sewer sluices, sluice valves, water-pipe joints, and similar details, should be to a scale not less than 8 feet to 1 inch, and for some details 4 feet to 1 inch.”[250]

“As it may occasionally be desired to carry out works piecemeal, with a view to save the time which would be occupied in the preparation of a complete plan from actual survey, it will be sufficient in the first instance to furnish any available general plan of streets and roads, with the surface levels and those of the deepest cellars figured in feet and inches, and the proposed scheme of works shown (or sketched) thereon, after which the works can proceed in sections. It should be understood, however, that a complete plan of the entire district must be proceeded with, so that when the works are finished, the sanitary authority and this Board may possess a proper record of them.”

And again, Mr. Rawlinson in the same year, at a meeting of the Association of Municipal and Sanitary Engineers, writes as follows:

“Plans should be neatly and clearly drawn, the cross sectional dimensions and the gradient being written on the _plan_ of sewers; there should be a title and scale on each plan, as also on each sheet, and the date with the name of the engineer or surveyor clearly written so as easily to be read; this as a rule should be in the right-hand corner. Many names are so written that experts cannot read them, and plans are frequently sent out having no title, nor any scale, nor any name.”

“Plans of details, such as side entrances, man-holes, flushing chambers, and sewer ventilating arrangements, should be at 4 feet to an inch, larger works may be at 4, 10 to 20 feet to an inch. Clear understandable and measurable details are desirable . . . I have much trouble in looking over defectively prepared plans and crude ill-understood and ill-digested schemes as they are submitted to the Local Government Board, for approval and sanction to a proposed loan. One great fact connected with the Board must not, however, be overlooked. It is not an office of works, it does not undertake to devise neither does it make itself responsible in any degree for the plans or for the estimates which may have been sanctioned. Each engineer and each local authority must both devise and execute the local works, and the district must alone be responsible for the local expenditure. The Board neither dictates as to works, nor superintends works, but reserves the power of refusing sanction to a proposed loan, and of requiring full explanations as to failures in the works, or as to expenses over estimates before sanctioning a supplemental loan. The reason that the Board declines responsibility ought to be clearly manifest; plans and details may be the best possible, but the ultimate result depends on daily local supervision, and this the Board does not give; neither local action nor local responsibility is superseded.”

Speaking on this point at the first meeting of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain held at Croydon in 1879, Captain Douglas Galton, C.B., says:[251]

“Where a loan is applied for, the plan upon which the money is to be spent is submitted for Government approval. The Government only lends the money after the approval of the proposed scheme of expenditure by one of their inspectors.”

“The Local Authorities of the towns to be drained cannot therefore be responsible for the plan selected, for the Local Authorities must alter their plans to suit the views of the inspector. The responsibility of the engineer is diminished, because he may be compelled to modify his plan in a manner in which he may not thoroughly approve, and the inspector has no responsibility in the matter, because, after having approved of the general scheme, he has no control over the details or the execution of the work, nor can he be in any way held responsible, if the result were a failure.”

[248] The Local Government Board have held a steam roller, a steam
fire-engine, a disinfecting apparatus, and lamp columns to be
permanent works.

[249] For asphalte pavements twelve years have been allowed.

[250] “Details may be drawn to any scale larger than the dimensions
named. Engraved or lithographed diagrams, if clear and distinct, will
be accepted. A new plan of any town or district cannot be used for
main sewering, water supply, gas supply, pavements, footwalks, and
other purposes without spoiling it; consequently it had better be
retained as a standard and be zincographed, there may then be copies
for all local purposes. The zinc plates to be the property of the
local authority.”

[251] _Vide_ ‘Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great
Britain,’ vol. i. p. 116.