Report to the General Board of Health on a further inquiry as to the boundaries which may be most advantageously adopted for the district of Burnham / by T. Webster Rammell, Superintending Inspector.

Rammell, Thomas Webster

Date:: 1851

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a further inquiry as to the boundaries which may be most advantageously adopted for the district of Burnham / by T. Webster Rammell, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$powers of the Act for promoting the public health. Your petitioners beg to inform your Lordship that the parish of Burnham consists of a large agricultural dislrict, five miles long, and three broad, consisting principally of dairy land ; that such district forms part of a very exten^ sive alluvial flat, called the South Marsh, comprising within its limits many parishes; that the South Marsh is divided into and forms two natural areas for agricultural drainage, the one having an outlet by the river Axe, the other by the River Brue. That the drainage of both these districts is regulated and managed by the Commissioners of Sewers for the county of Somerset, under thepow ers of the General Sewers Act, and also of Acts for improving the drainage of the rivers Axe and Brue respectively ; and that the landowners would prefer leaving the management of the drainage of the parish of Burnham under the said Commissioners, to placing it under the control of the Local Board of Health ; that it would neither be wise nor practicable (except at great and unnecessary expense) to improve the agricultural drainage of the parish of Burnham without simultaneously improving the drainage of other parishes, and using and interfering with the drains under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Sewers ; and that for eit'ier of such purposes the concurrence of the Commissioners would be absolutely necessary. That the town of Burnham is a small watering-place, lying on one side of the parish, immediately adjoining the sea, and is, as your petitioners admit, much in want of ordinary sewers for the houses therein. That the hamlet of Higlibridge, con- sisting of only 49 houses, lies also on one side of the parish imme- diately adjoining the river Brue, at a distance of more than a mile from the town of Burnham, and the inhabitants are adverse to the extension of the distric'^i to that hamlet; that no other part of the parish contains a sufficient number of adjacent houses to admit of any but local drainage for individual houses, for which no powers by legis- lative enactment are required ; that the natural and cheapest mode of draining the town of Burnham is directly into the sea, and that no difficulty whatever would exist, in limiting the district for sanitary • purposes to the town of Burnham; whilst at the same time such an ! arrangement would meet the wishes of all reasonable persons in the : parish. That inasmuch as a very large portion of the salaries and other general expenses of the Local Board will fall on the landowners, they \ will be obliged in their own defence to excercise the powers given to them, and to elect members of the Local Board from among them- selves, although they will have no interest whatever in the works to be j executed by such Local Board. Your Petitioners, therefore, pray your Lordship to reconsider the boundaries which have been fixed for the district of Burnham, and to j obtain such a re-arrangement of the same as will confine them to the town of Burnham alone. The meinorial of the occupiers of land (received the same day) is signed by 67 persons, holding in the aggregate 2,442a. 2r. 28p. ; and is substantially a counterpart of the preceding. The memorial of the rate-payers of Higlibridge (received 13th July last) is signed by 42 persons, and is as follows:—$