Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/2195

Rh of a cellar adjoining the highway, or allowing it to become so defective as to be a source of danger; keeping an unruly or fierce animal in a field through which a public right-of-way exists; storing inflammable materials near a highway.

II. STATUTORY NUISANCES.

1. Under the Highways Acts.—Allowing filth, dirt, lime or other offensive matter to escape on to a highway from adjoining premises; laying anything on a highway to the injury thereof, or to the danger of any person travelling on it; placing dung or rubbish on the side of a road and within 15 feet of the centre; planting any tree, or encroaching by any building, hedge or ditch, within 15 feet of the centre of the road; altering or in any way interfering with a ditch, etc., adjoining a road and under the charge of the surveyor, without his authority; firing a gun or pistol or letting off fireworks, within 50 feet of the centre of the road.

2. Under the Barbed Wire Act, 1893.—Placing on any land adjoining a highway a fence made of barbed wire, which may probably be injurious to persons or animals lawfully using the highway. The abatement of such nuisance may be enforced by the local authority. Where the local authority are themselves the offenders, proceedings may be taken against them by any ratepayer within their district.

3. Under the Quarry (Fencing) Act, 1887.—Where any quarry dangerous to the public is on open or uninclosed land, within 50 yards of a highway or place of public resort dedicated to the public, and is not separated therefrom by a secure and sufficient fence, it must be kept reasonably fenced for the prevention of accidents, and unless so kept will be deemed to be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily.

4. Under the Public Health Acts.—Where any of the following nuisances the local authority may serve a notice on the person by whom it was committed, or if he cannot be found, then on the owner or occupier of the premises, requiring him to abate the nuisance within a specified time. If the notice be not complied with, a penalty not exceeding £5 (or £10 in the Metropolis) may, on complaint by the local authority, be imposed by a magistrate who may also make an order requiring the nuisance to be abated, or, if necessary, in the case of a dwelling-house, prohibiting it from being used for habitation. And where the nuisance has been abated but is likely to recur, an order prohibiting its recurrence may be made. Failure to comply with any such order will entail additional penalties.

It is the duty of the local authority to exercise the above powers upon information by any person aggrieved, or by any two householders in their district (or in the Metropolis, upon information given by any person), provided they are satisfied that a nuisance exists.

Any house or part of a house so overcowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates—

Will be deemed to be nuisances liable to be dealt with summarily.

As to the powers of the local authority with regard to Drainage, Water Supply, Removal of Refuse and Infectious Diseases, see respectively Sanitary Requirements and Infectious Diseases.

5. Under the Inclosure Acts.—It is a punishable offence to wilfully deposit