§ MR. BURDETT-COUTTS (Westminster)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the basements of many valuable properties along the line of certain of the principal sewers in Westminster have for the past five or six years been frequently flooded with sewage, owing to the insufficient capacity of such sewers for the increasing requirements; whether the alterations to the system of drainage of the Houses of Parliament, which cost some £30,000 in 1887, were occasioned by the imperfect local sewerage system; and whether he will call upon the Local Authority of Westminster to inform him of the steps taken to protect the district from a recurrence of the evil?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE, Tower Hamlets, St. George's)My attention had not been drawn to the matter to which the question of my hon. Friend refers prior to the notice which was given by him. I have communicated with the Vestry of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster, and I am informed that the basements of many valuable properties along the line of certain of the principal streets in Westminster have for the past six years been frequently flooded with sewage, owing to the insufficient capacity of the sewers for the increased requirements. As regards the alterations in the system of drainage of 1931 the Houses of Parliament, I learn from the Chief Commissioner of Her Majesty's Works that these alterations were not occasioned by the imperfect local sewerage system, but were undertaken in order to improve the mode of connecting the main drains of the building with the Metropolitan main low level sewer, and to enable them to be freed from sewage at all times, and that the cost of that portion of the work did not exceed £12,000. The Vestry of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster, attribute the flooding to the fact that when heavy rains occur at or near the time of high water in the Thames, the main lines of the sewers become so fully charged as to be unable to afford an outlet for the surface water from the local sewers, and they state that as the water accumulates from the higher land it flows back from the main line sewers through the local service into the areas and basements of many of the houses and buildings in the low-lying parts of the parish. The Vestry, it appears, were for a long time in communication with the Metropolitan Board of Works, and subsequently have been in communication with the London County Council with a view to their providing additional means of discharging storm water. The Vestry, it appears, were informed by the Chief Engineer to the County Council in September last that a scheme for the prevention of flooding was then being prepared. The matter is not one in which the Local Government Board have any jurisdiction.