HC Deb 29 February 1884 vol 285 cc233-8
LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

, in rising, according to Notice, to call attention to the conduct of the Local Government Board in placing a permanent fever hospital at Winchmore Hill without giving an opportunity to the local authorities, who had written to the Local Government Board on the subject, of stating their objections to the hospital; and to move— That the action of the Local Government Board in declining to hear the objections of the inhabitants of Winchmore Hill, expressed hrough their local sanitary authority, against the establishment of a fever and a small-pox hospital in their district, is a course calculated to bring the principles of self-government into disrepute, and to establish a dangerous precedent for the exercise of that controlling power over local boards entrusted by Parliament to that Department, urged that the action of the Local Government Board in declining to hear the objections of the inhabitants of Winchmore Hill, expressed through their local sanitary authority, the Local Board of Southgate, against the establishment of a fever and small-pox hospital in their district, was a course calculated to bring the principles of local self-government into disrepute, and to establish a dangerous precedent for the exercise of that controlling power over Local Boards intrusted by Parliament to that Department. A proposal having some time ago been made to place a permanent fever hospital in the midst of that district, the inhabitants naturally objected to such a proceeding, and the local sanitary authority addressed a request to the Local Government Board that their objections to it might be heard. On the 10th of January the local sanitary authority wrote to the Local Government Board, stating that the inhabitants were strongly averse to the proposal; that they, themselves, concurred in their objections to it; and that they hoped the Local Government Board would consider them. On the 16th of January the Local Government Board wrote, in reply, stating that the proposal referred to had not yet come under the consideration of the Department. Such a reply naturally conveyed to those who received it the impression that when the proposal came before the Board it would be ready to hear their objections. The Local Government Board was asked to receive a deputation on the subject as soon as it came officially before them. Then they had received the astonishing communication that the Board had already assented to the scheme, which a few days before they had been told was not under its consideration. The result of this had been that the opinion of the locality had not been heard, and the inhabitants would naturally attribute any ill-effects which might follow the placing of a fever and small-pox hospital in the midst of a thickly-populated district to the action of the Local Government Board. He thought that this would have a bad effect upon local authorities generally. The object of establishing Local Boards in connection with the Local Government Board was that the inhabitants of the neighbourhood should be able to address the Local Government Board through the Local Board. But in this case the Local Government Board practically refused to hear them, although they had applied to be heard; and when attention was called to the matter, the reply of the Local Government Board was that they had considered the matter, and had thought that there was so little to be said on the other side that it had not been worth while to receive a deputation. Surely the inhabitants of a district in which it was proposed to place a hospital of this nature had a right to be heard. In Middlesex they had had an unfortunate experience of fever and small-pox hospitals, as instanced in the long controversy concerning that at Hampstead. Everyone must admit that hospitals of this kind were a necessity, and must exist in some locality, and in this instance the inhabitants were quite ready to make sacrifices, provided that the necessity was clearly proved to them; but their request to have an interview with the Local Government Board on the subject had been refused with an extraordinary celerity. Their wishes could not now be heard, but he was anxious to obtain some declaration from the Local Government Board that this was not the principle on which they were going to act in future; and he had called attention to the matter in the hope that he would obtain some disclaimer, or some explanation, of the extraordinary course they had taken with regard to the local authorities in this case.

MR. GEORGE RUSSELL

acknowledged the courtesy with which the noble Lord had approached the subject, and the almost complete accuracy of his facts. There was one point on which he thought the noble Lord was misinformed. On the 11th of January a communication had been addressed to the Board by the Southgate Local Board, stating that they had received a memorial from the inhabitants of the district, expressing an opinion that the erection of a hospital for fever and small-pox patients on the site in question would be prejudicial to the health of those residing in the neighbourhood, and would be prejudicial to the district, and that the Local Board concurred in these views. The Local Board, however, did not express any wish to be heard; they expressed their views upon paper; but did not ask that any deputation from them should be received. On the 16th of January the Local Government Board replied that the proposal was not yet under their consideration. The Metropolitan Asylums Board had not, in fact, at that time determined to acquire the site. On the 19th a resolution had been passed by the managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board that the site should be secured. The Board then received Reports from two of their Inspectors, from which it appeared that the site was about as free from the objections generally urged against all sites, more or less, as any site could be, and that it was peculiarly suitable for a hospital for the reception of such cases as it was designed to receive. On the 23rd of January the Local Government Board arrived at the decision that the site should be approved; and it was not until the day following that on which the consent was given that the Local Board of Southgate applied for an interview. Therefore, the Local Government Board should be absolved from any charge of discourtesy, and, of course, such a thing was never intended. He thought it was wholly impossible to choose a site for a fever hospital without stirring up some amount of local prejudice and dissatisfaction; but in this case every precaution had been taken, all objections had been set forth on paper, and these had been carefully examined, and the Inspectors had reported favourably on the subject. It should also be remembered that it was another body—the Metropolitan Asylums Board—that had decided upon the site; all that the Local Government Board had had to do had been to weigh the propositions of one representative body against those of another similar representative body. In his judgment, the principles on which local government were conducted, and on which the authority of the Local Government Board was founded, were less likely to be brought into disrepute by a careful and quiet review of the circumstances of each case, and by a calm decision, than by any action on their part which opened the door to a prolonged and acrimonious discussion and final dissatisfaction with the decision arrived at. The Board were not asked to receive a deputation from the Local Board until after their sanction to the purchase of the site had been given, and he had no hesitation in saying that any local dissatisfaction which might exist could not be weighed against the substantial advantages to the health of the Metropolis which were secured by the sanction of the Local Government Board to the erection of the fever hospital in question.

MR. SCLATER-BOOTH

said, he thought that his noble Friend had been entirely justified in bringing forward this question. In a case of this nature it was the duty of the Local Government Board to take care that no ground for dissatisfaction should exist; but here the Local Board had received rather a snubbing. Everybody must feel that the hon. Member had stated the arrangements of the Local Government Board very fairly; but it was impossible to refrain from saying that the comparison he had given the House of the Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Local Board at Southgate was not altogether a just one. The Metropolitan Asylums Board was not representative of the place in the same sense at all as the Local Board. He thought, however, his noble Friend would be satisfied with the discussion which had taken place.

SIR CHARLES W. DILKE

merely wished to say that he agreed in thinking that it would have been advisable to have had a paragraph in the letter stating that the representations of the Local Board had received full consideration.

EARL PERCY

concurred in thinking that a communication from a Government Office, stating that a certain matter had not come under their notice, would have the effect of silencing any person applying for information, and would lead him to suppose that no action would be taken. If, however, he was informed that the matter, though it had not then come before the Department, would shortly be considered, it would then be in his power to take such further steps by deputation to the Department, or otherwise, as he might be advised.

[The subject then dropped.]