Westward Ho! and its Drainage: Another Local Government Board Inquiry: So much has for the past six or seven years been written concerning the disputes at the Northam Local Board, between the representatives of Northam and Appledore, and those of Westward Ho! with regard to the drainage of Westward Ho! that the public by this time pretty well understand that, in consequence of these differences of opinion, the drainage of the district has been from time to time delayed. Three Local Government Board inquiries have already been held on the subject, but up to this time nothing has been done in the way of effectually draining the place, and a short time ago Mr. Pynsent and others made a complaint to the Local Government Board that the Local Board of the district had made default in providing their district with sufficient sewers.
Upon this representation the Local Government Board ordered an inquiry to be held with reference to that default, which inquiry was held on Wednesday at the Royal Hotel, Westward Ho! by Lieut. – Col. Ponsonby Cox, R.E. The Inspector was also requested to inquire with reference to a proposal which had been made to dissolve the district of the Northam Local Board, and merge it in the district of the Rural Sanitary Authority of the Bideford Union, and also into the alternative proposal to declare the portion of the district of the Local Board known as Westward Ho! to be included in the district of the said Rural Sanitary Authority. There were present at the inquiry Capt. Wren (chairman of the Northam Local Board), Capt. Molesworth, Mr. Pynsent, Mr. Sandercock, Mr. W. Pickard, Mr. Smale, Mr. W. Kelly, Mr. Beer, and other members of the Local Board, besides the Rev. Gossett, Dr. Acland; and Messrs. Baker, Oatway, Vellacott, and several ratepayers of the district. — The Inspector stated the object of the inquiry and said the complaint had been made under the 299th section of the Public Health Act. —
The first to give any information on the subject was Mr. Pynsent, of Westward Ho! He was about to give a history of the action, or rather inaction, of the Northam Local Board from the year 1870, but the Inspector desired that information should be given him only with regard to the default of the Board in carrying out a drainage scheme called the Pimpley Scheme, for which £350 was borrowed in May last. — Mr. Pynsent still continued to explain that some few years ago when his hotel — the Pebble Ridge Hotel — was open, Mr. Froude, the historian, Canon Kingsley, and the Rev. Cowley Cowles visited him at the hotel. They went out on the balcony, and the stench was so great that Canon Kingsley was taken ill. That was in consequence of the stench arising from the drainage which had been brought immediately in front of his house without a sufficient outlet. — Captain Wren said there had been several reasons for the delay. They could not, for one thing, carry the works on in the middle of summer when all the visitors were about, and meetings which should have been held were not convened. Further than that, on August 10th the Clerk to the Board wrote a letter to Mr. Ellis, engineer, of Exeter, requesting him to make plans and specifications for the Pimpley Scheme, in order that the Clerk might advertise; but Mr. Ellis declined to do so, stating as his reason that he would rather be relieved, as Captain Molesworth had opposed every scheme but his own, and he did not wish to be engaged in any quarrels or squabbles. — Capt. Molesworth here said he had never opposed any scheme, and it was absurd for an official to make a peg of his name as an excuse for stopping the drainage. —
lt was elicited that owing to the sea rushing in and breaking the pipes in July, the Local Board resolved to carry out some temporary works to the westward at a cost of £15, which was done, but which had since been demolished. — Mr. Pynsent said the Local Board would resolve to do anything, but they would never carry it out. They would vote enough to cleanse Cyprus, but they would not do the work. In August the Local Board wrote to the Board above saying they had adopted these temporary works and asking to be allowed time to give them a fair trial, since which time the Board had directed the present inquiry to be held. — Capt. Molesworth said the object of the Northam Board was to put their temporary works on their trial, and if they answered they would have pushed the question of the drainage to the eastward off for an indefinite time. Indeed, had it not been for that inquiry, the thing would have been pushed off. When Mr. Morgan held inquiry there, he recommended the scheme to the eastward, which the ratepayers of Westward Ho! were agreeable to, but the Local Board did not believe in the scheme, and although they passed a resolution that it should be carried out, they took no action to carry it out. He (Capt. Molesworth) had not made any complaints because they were injurious to the place. It was the healthiest place in England; there was no illness there, and nothing to complain of, except those horrible Government inquiries. The water was the purest, and the drainage was the best, in England. Had the scheme which Mr. Morgan recommended been carried out, there would have been no inquiry again. From the commencement of the formation of the Northam Local Board there had been nothing but opposition to do anything at Westward Ho! —
The Rev. I. H. Gossett said he considered that, with regard to the question of the reduction of the members of the Board, twenty-four was too large a number. For some years he had been an advocate for reducing the number. The Board had even made application to reduce the number, and when Mr. Morgan held the last inquiry that was one of the things he was going to inquire into, but at the last moment the Chairman of the Northam Board withdrew the matter. He (the speaker) thought twelve quite sufficient, and he thought it would be fair that those twelve should be distributed amongst the parish and elected by wards. That would give a fair representation of the parish and prevent one place being swamped by the others. He thought Westward Ho! had been, on the whole, badly treated by the Northam Local Board from the beginning. Why, then, should Westward Ho! be further punished by being thrust into the Bideford Sanitary Authority? Some time ago a memorial was sent to the Local Government Board asking that the district might be separated, but it was afterwards agreed that Westward Ho! should remain with the Northam Local Board, and that the Board should do certain things for Westward Ho! Those things, however, had not been done, and he thought Westward Ho! should be separated and formed into a district Local Board itself. Northam could then be a Local Board itself, and Appledore the same, or the latter could go under the petticoat government of the Bideford Rural Sanitary Authority. He did not agree with dissolution. He thought the united parish, comprising Northam, Westward Ho! and Appledore, ought to have been able to have ruled itself; but as it could not, it should be divided into two or three Boards. — Mr. Pynsent said he was not for what Mr. Gossett now advocated, but for what he did in 1869. He then wrote a pamphlet in favour of union. He said then: “The motto upon the seal of the Board is ‘ Union is strength;’ the design in the middle of the seal is a bundle of sticks; strong when tightly bound together, weak when unbound.” He (Mr. Pynsent) was against dissolution. — Mr. B. Pickard reminded Mr. Gossett that when the Board was first formed, he recommended that it should consist of 24 members. (Laughter.) — Capt. Molesworth and Mr. W. Pickard saw no reason why Mr. Gossett’s suggestion, to reduce the numbers and divide districts into wards, should not be carried out. — The Inspector said he also saw no reason, but it could only be done by a resolution of the ratepayers and owners. — This ended the inquiry, and the Inspector went down on the Burrows to visit the place or places complained of. — In the course of a few weeks the Inspector will make his report to the Local Government Board.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0835 Hennock: Thomas Pynsent: 1808 – 1887