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17. Section 8 of this Ordinance enacts a new section 98 which gives the Governor in Council power to make regu- lations governing the design, construction and situation. of exceptional buildings generally. The present intention is that under this power the London County Council Reinforced Concrete Regulations will be introduced here with the necessary modifications, so soon as time can be found to adapt them throughout in detail. Until that is done the Building Authority proposes to use his discretion under the new section 97 in accordance with the London County Council Regulations, so far as possible.
18. There is no definition of the meaning of the word "re-erection " in section 180 of the principal Ordinance, but it has always been assumed that when a domestic building is altered so as to make the resulting structure a new building within the meaning of paragraph (39) of section 6 of the Ordinance the domestic building in ques- tion is to be deemed to have been re-erente 1. This will be expressly provided in the new sub-section added by section 10 of this Ordinance. That sub-section also pro- vides that re-crection shall include every alteration which makes the resulting building an exceptional building.
19. The third object of this Ordinance is to make some miner amendments relating to water closets and water- fushed urinals. This subject is dealt with in section 9.
20. In the first place it is not right that the time of the Governor in Council should be taken up with a matter which, within limits, has become largely a matter of routine. The new section 162 therefore substitutes the permission of the Colonial Secretary for the consent of the Governor in Council. Government control is retained because, while the Board is fully competent to weigh sanitary conditions, it it often not in possession of the data nccessary for dealing with other considerations which are sometimes involved e.g., questions of drainage and water supply.
21. In the second place, the only eases in which the removal of water closets or urinals may clearly be ordered under the principal Ordinance are the following
(a) When they are a nuisance within the meaning
of section 26 of the principal Ordinance.
(b) When (i) they were in existence at the commens cement of the principal Ordinance and (ii) have, without the permission of the Board or the cou- sent of the Governor in Council, a communication with a publie sewer or private drain.
(c) When they are, in the opinion of the Board and of the Governor in Council, in an insanitary condition.
Other cases where there should be a clear power to remove readily suggest themselves, e.g., where there has been a breach of a condition of the permission, where the well from which the water supply was drawn has dried up, where a pump has become defective, or where both parties intended originally that there should be a power of revoca- tion. Accordingly, sub-section (3) of the new section 162 gives a magistrate power to order jemoval (4) where the construction was unlawful, (3) where the maintenance is unlawful, e.g., in breach of a condition, and (c) where the use is in sanitary. It is also possible that removal might he necessary on some ground not specified in sub-section (8). Accordingly, sub-sections (4) and (5) give an abso- lute power of removal.
22. There are other minor alterations:--
(a) In section 162 of the principal Ordinance it is
only construction that is an offence.
The new section makes maintenance also an offence. That necessitates the distinction drawn in sub-sections (1) and (2) between construction before the com- mencement of the amending Ordinance and cou- struction after that date.
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