§ MR. CHIOZZA MONEYI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been directed to the fact that some twenty-five mews and yards in Marylebone have recently been claimed by Viscount Portman as his private property, although they have been for nearly a century drained, paved, cleansed, and lighted by the public authority, which has exercised in regard to them precisely the same powers which it has exercised over other local public places; and whether he is taking any action in the matter.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI have made inquiry and am informed that there has been litigation between Lord Portman and the Borough Council on this subject, and that judgment has been given against the Council. The fact that the Borough Council or their predecessors have paved and lighted the mews which was the subject of the litigation, was brought under the notice of the Court. I presume that the decision of the Court will govern other cases of the same kind as that to which it related, but the Borough Council have resolved to deal with each mews in 1406 turn when the freeholder proposes to enclose it. The matter is not one with respect to which I can take any action.