§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it is the case that the Guardians of the Maidstone Union applied to the Local Government Board on the 17th of May last for permission to resume their weekly meetings at the Union Workhouse which had been experimentally removed from thence twelve months previously; whether a full statement of their reasons for desiring this change was submitted to the Board six weeks ago; and, why no decision on the subject has been arrived at or communicated to the guardians?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, the Guardians in February, 1882, passed 1474 a resolution in favour of holding their meetings in the town of Maidstone instead of at the workhouse at Coxheath, which is at a distance of about four miles, so long as suitable accommodation could be obtained in the town. The Board assented to the arrangement, and since that time the Town Hall has been used by the Guardians for their meetings free of charge. The Guardians in May last, at a meeting at which 23 Guardians were present, by a majority of one vote passed a resolution to the effect that the place of meeting should be changed to Coxheath. The Board received a communication signed by the Mayor, on behalf of the trustees of the poor and ratepayers of Maidstone, and at the request of a Vestry meeting of the parish—the parish, having half the population and ratable value of the Union, strongly objecting to this proposal, and urging that the existing arrangement should be continued. The Board informed the memorialists of the grounds which were assigned in a resolution of the Guardians for the proposed change, and their reply was received on the 20th ultimo. The Board, after full consideration of the circumstances, and especially having regard to the fact that the Resolution was only carried by a majority of one vote, have informed the Guardians that the Board are not prepared to assent to the proposal until there has been a further trial of the existing arrangement.