§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTON (Tower Hamlets, Poplar)asked the hon. Member for the Knutsford Division of Cheshire, Whether it is a fact that, on Tuesday evening last (26th instant), during a heavy rain storm, the basements of many houses in the Isle of Dogs were flooded with sewage, the depths varying from a few inches to two or three feet; whether, though the weather had been threatening for some hours, when the storm burst, the temporary engines at the pumping station were not at work, the engine only registering a 10 lb. pressure of steam; whether neither at the beginning nor during the continuance of the storm was any engineer in attendance at the station; how did the remissness occur; what steps do the Metropolitan Board of Works propose to take in the matter 1719 in order to prevent a repetition of the flooding; and, what compensation do they propose to give to those who have suffered from the overflowing due to the non-working of the pumping engines?
§ MR. TATTON EGERTON (Cheshire, Knutsford)Several houses were flooded owing to the insufficiency of the local sewers to take the storm waters away quick enough into the Board's main sewers. One of the two powerful temporary pumping engines was at work when the rain commenced, and was more than equal to pump all the water that came to it. The engineer, whose duty it was to attend these engines, was on the spot at the time with his stoker and worked his engine. There was no remissness on the part of anyone connected with the Board. The Board is now erecting permanent engines for preventing floods in future, which it is expected will be completed ready for working next month.