§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICETo ask the President of the Local Government Board if he is aware that it is proposed to build a new workhouse for the Tetbury Union; and if he will consider the desirability of incorporating the Wiltshire parishes of the union with the Malmesbury Union in that county, and of Gloucestershire parishes with other Gloucestershire unions, so as to avoid the expense of building a new workhouse; and if he will state the average number of indoor poor in the Tetbury Union during the past three years; the present rateable value, and the population by the census of 1901; and the estimated cost of the new workhouse.
(Answer.) For many years the workhouse of the Tetbury Union has been unsatisfactory, and the guardians have from time to time had before them the question of building a new one. On the 6th March last the Local Government Board wrote to the guardians, referring to objections to the present building, particularly as regards the risk from fire, and urged them again to consider seriously the whole subject. No communication has since been received from the guardians. I should be willing to consider any application which might be made with regard to the dissolution of the union, but I am informed that the guardians are opposed to any such proposal. During the past three years the mean number of indoor paupers, including vagrants, was forty-seven, forty-three, and forty-seven respectively. The rateable value of the union at Lady Day, 1901, was £31,117, and the population, according to the last census, 179 6,146. I am not in a position to say what would be the cost of building a new workhouse, but I am informed that it has been estimated at £15,000.—(Loral Government Board.)