§ LORD ELCHOasked the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, Whether any power is vested in the Board enabling it to ensure the proper watering and cleansing of the streets and thoroughfares of the Metropolis, or whether these necessary operations have to be left to the action of thirty-nine separate independent local authorities?
SIR JAMES HOGGSir, in answer to the Question of the noble Lord, I have to state that the Metropolitan Board have no actual control over the thoroughfares of the Metropolis so as to ensure watering and cleansing. This power is specially conferred upon the vestries and district boards by Act of Parliament. Complaints are sometimes made on this and other subjects to the Metropolitan Board, who always communicate with the vestry or district board in question. I am bound to add that all communications are received in the most friendly spirit, and the grievances removed as far as can be done. The only exception to the powers of vestries, &c., as regards roads is the Victoria Embankment, which, by an Act of Parliament passed in 1872, is placed under the Metropolitan Board as regards cleansing, lighting, and paving.