HC Deb 17 October 1902 vol 113 cc141-2
( MR. MORRELL (Oxfordshire, Woodstock) Question

To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received and been able to consider resolutions from Oxford City in favour of additional guardians for the parishes of St. Thomas, St. Ebbe, and St. Aldate on the ground that, though the population and rateable value of these parishes is admitted to be in excess of the population and rateable value of certain other parishes in the union, as St. Mary the Virgin, All Saints, and St. Martin (Carfax), their representation on the Board is not proportionate; and whether he is now prepared either to hold a local inquiry into the matter, or to make a Provisional Order enabling these parishes to proceed to elect additional guardians, and, if so, how many.

(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) Application has been made to me for an increase in the representation on the Board of Guardians of the parishes of St. Thomas, St. Ebbe and St. Aldate, Oxford, and I have been in communication with the guardians of the Oxford Incorporation on the subject. The guardians at first proposed that the area of the Poor Law Union should be altered, but this proposal has now been abandoned. I have, therefore, requested that I may be furnished with their observations as regards an increase in the number of guardians for the parishes referred to. I drew the attention of the guardians to the matter a few days since, and on hearing from them I hope to be in a position to deal with the proposal that a local inquiry should be held.