St. Leonards, 1850
Commissioners' Transactions
Though the first quarterly meeting of the St. Leonards Commissioners in 1850 was not held until the 25th of March, I will follow my rather usual course of reviewing those meetings first, and this will afford an explanation of some of the business transacted or matters discussed at the meetings of the Town Council. Presiding at this meeting was Capt. Davies, and the other Commissioners present were Messrs. Alfred and Decimus Burton, James Mann, H. W. Brown, and the Rev. G. D. St. Quintin. The following report was received from the Committee :—
The Superintending Inspector from the Board of Health, having, in consequence of a petition from the borough, given notice of his intention to come down for the purpose of obtaining evidence as to the sanitary state of the town, and as the Commissioners had on a previous occusion expressed their disapprovation of the Health of Towns Bill being applied to - St. Leonards, your Committee considered it their duty to obtain the feeling of the inhabitants on the subject by having a petition to the Board of Health drawn up, praying that the Act might not be applied. This was signed by about fifty householders. The clerk subsequently had an interview with the Inspector (Mr. Cressey), who intimated that the Act would be applied to Hastings only, but suggested that certain improvements might be made in the local Act by means of a provisional order of the General Board of Health, to be sanctioned by a public General Act, which, if approved, would be noticed in the Inspector's report. But doubts having occurred as to the possibility of making alterations in the local Act without the town being put under the application of the Public Health Act, a case was submitted to Mr. Lawes. for Counsel's opinion. This opinion was that such amendments could not be effected except for the purpose of applying the whole or part of the Public Health Act to the town.
A copy of this was forwarded to Mr. Cressey.
Whether R. B, Brander, Esq. and G. F, Jarman, Esq., were for or against the application to St. Leonards of the Health of Towns Bill does not appear, but it was announced at this meeting that they declined to serve on the Board of Commissioners, to which they had been elected in the previous December.
At their next quarterly meeting on the 24th of June, the members present were Messrs. St. Quintin, Davies, A. Burton, D. Burton, W. F. Burton, C. H. Southall, J. Mann, 3, Chester and G. B. Greenough, the last-named gentleman in the chair. The business transacted was that in future every proposition, intended to be made should be made in writing and sent to the Clerk a week prior to the meeting; that a committee confer with Dr. Harwood, he having applied, to lay down water-pipes to his houses at The Uplands from a well that Messrs. Eversfield and Deudney had allowed him to sink; that the east line of boundary be correctly laid down in Commissioners’ map; and that Mr. Decimus Burton be permitted to drain his houses leading west from the National schools into the sewer at Mercatoria.
At the September meeting it appeared that Mr. Jarman had revoked his determination to resign, and then took the usual oath to serve, The matters discussed were few and the decisions arrived at were that Mr D. Burton be allowed to drain his "cottage" at Maze Hill, and Dr. Harwood his houses at The Uplands on certain conditions of payment.
On the 17th of December, at a meeting of rate-payers, Messrs, George Henry Malcolm Wagner, Newton Parks, John Carey and Henry Hughes, were elected to supply the places of Major Jeffries, Dr. Burton, and Mr. Thomas Adams, all of whom had died, and of Mr. Robert Deudney, who had declined any longer to act, The next meeting was regarded as a very important one.
