BOROUGH DRAINAGE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 39, 16 June 1915, Page 6

BOROUGH DRAINAGE.

110 ITrw Editoe Stratfobo Poht.l j Sir,—Now that the Borough Council have turned down His Worship's crude idea of making ratepayers pay for permanent improvements in the town, the presently seems a proper times to discuss the principles on which permanent improvements'should be effected. It may be laid down as a proposition,requiring no proof that where money is ,spent (judiciously of course), the value of property in the neighbourhood is • increased by the amount so spent. If the property is increased in value it should pay interest on the capital so spent. This is the principle of the English Betterment Act, and' should never for one moment be lost sight of. To make, as His Worship proposed, one part of the town pay for the improvement of another part was a violation of the principle, and it augurs well for the new Council that it turned itdown. But at the same time tne idea contains the germ of a better one. At the present time there is a loan owing by the Borough of £5600 that has been spent on drainage. This loan bears interest at 3} per cent, or an annual charge on the Borough of £l9O. It is estimated that another £II,OOO would be reqrcrred to complete the 'remainder of the drainage urgently required. Now £II,OOO at 5 per cent, would cost yearly £550, add this to the first £196 and we have roughly £750 to be raised for drainage. There are at present about 250 connections, and it is estimated that after the £II,OOO is spent there will bo another 250 or 500 in all. Now it does not require much arithmetic to show that £750 divided among 000 contributors would be 30s for each. Our present abominable system of collection costs from one pound a year upwards, and we can have the cleaner method lor an extra 10s per year! Let His Worship bring down a scheme to do away with the present iniquitous method of making the whole Borough pay for the drainage of the favoured few by levying a tax on all W.C.'s sufficient to pay interest on loan moneys, on 'with a fresh loan for the parts of the town not at present served, and at the same time cease to collect the drainage rate, and he will have the support of the ratepayers. I am aware that there are several details that would considerably modify even the payment of thirty shillings per W.C., but people do not read long letters. I am, etc. HENRY WILSON.