§ MR. STEWART MACLIVERasked the President of the Local Government Board, If his attention has been called to the action of the Sanitary Authority at Bristol in summoning the owners (chiefly working men) of seventy-four houses condemned by the medical officer of health; these houses having been erected on the strength of the official sanction to the plans; and, whether such proceedings, without compensation to the owners of the property, are approved by the Board?
§ MR. DODSONMy attention had not been called to this matter until my hon. Friend gave Notice of his Question; but I have since communicated with the Sanitary Authority on the subject. I find that the Medical Officer of Health has reported a number of houses as being unfit for human habitation, because they are built on low lands, which are liable to be flooded whenever there is an excess of rain. It is true that the houses have been built in accordance with plans submitted to the Sanitary Authority in pursuance of their bye-laws; but when the plans were before the Sanitary Authority they had only to consider whether the requirements of the bye-laws were satisfied; and the bye-laws referred to the structure of the buildings and not to the fitness of the site. The Sanitary Authority, therefore, gave no approval to the site. The Local Government Board have no control over the Sanitary Authority in this matter; but the case will be brought before the Justices before the houses are closed, and it will, of course, be necessary to satisfy them that the houses are, in fact, unfit for habitation.