Reports by various committees on the origin and progress of the public works belonging to the town, and the vital experience resulting from the administration of the Sanitary Acts in Leek, from the year 1855 to 1894 / Leek Improvement Commissioners.

Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports by various committees on the origin and progress of the public works belonging to the town, and the vital experience resulting from the administration of the Sanitary Acts in Leek, from the year 1855 to 1894 / Leek Improvement Commissioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REPORT OF THE WATER COMMITTEE, The Water Works were purchased from the Earl of Mac¬ clesfield for ^11,000. the purchase money being allowed to remain on mortgage of the property. At the time the transfer took place 2117 Dwelling-houses were included within the limits of the Act, of which about 1260 only were supplied with water from these Works, leaving the large number of 800 houses and upwards unprovided, or but partially supplied from other sources, with this prime necessary of life The gross income then amounted to ^586, and the average outlay for repairs and maintenance, &c., to about £70 It is but bare justice to nis Lordship’s Agents to s ty, that, by the pro¬ duction of books, accounts, &c., they afforded every facility to the parties on whom the msk of negotiation was devolved by the Commissioners, to get at the true and instrinsic value of the property; while on the other hand, justice to those parties demands the statement, that they laboured strenuously —as they felt it incumbent on themselves, as the servants aud representatives of the Ratepayers generally, to do--to secure that Property on the best and cheapest terms possible. The Committee consider this speculation on the compara¬ tively low, but still important ground of remunerative return, a good one ; and that by cautious and judicious management, the Works may, in a few years, be made, not merely to pay their way but to yield a fair surplus or profit Already has the number of houses supplied from the Town Works risen form 1260 to 1732, and the gross rental from £586 to £727. On higher grounds,—for bringing the sanitary condition of the Town into a sound and healthy state, this acquisition is indispensible. In justification, if justification be necessary, of the course which the Committee took of recommending the Water Works to be acquired by private treaty, rather than by recourse to the alternative of a reference, as provided by the Act, the following citation from an Act of Parlia¬ ment, which passed in 1827, may suffice—In section 1 of this Act, it is enacted, that “Where the rent or Annual “Value of such Dwelling-house, or part of a Dwelling- “house” as may be supplied with Water by the Earl of Macclesfield, “shall not exceeed Fifteen Pounds per an- “num, a Rent per annum not exceeding one shilling and “sixpence in the pound upon such Rent or Annual Value,” may be charged by the Earl; “and where such Rent shall be “above Fifteen Pounds per annum, a rent per annum not “exceeding two shillings and sixpence tn the Pound upon “such Rent or Annual Value,” may be charged “and every