§ LORD ERNEST BRUCEasked the honourable and gallant Member for Truro, Whether the Metropolitan Board of Works have any voice in the time of year selected for repaving the streets of London; and, consequently, whether it is with their sanction or authority that February and March, the two first months of the Session of Parliament, have been selected for the purpose of taking up and repaving the whole of the important thoroughfare of Piccadilly?
SIR JAMES HOGGIn answer to the Question of the noble Lord, I beg to inform him that the Metropolitan Board of Works has no voice in the time of year selected for repaving the streets of London, and consequently it is not with their sanction or authority that February and March have been selected for repaving a portion of Piccadilly, not the whole, as stated by the noble Lord. The Board has a power of veto as regards the closing of streets, and did object in this particular instance to the entire closing of Piccadilly, unless the works were postponed until the autumn; but the 816 Vestry having elected to close only a portion of the street, leaving open a thoroughfare, the consent of the Board was no longer necessary.