Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890

Extension of 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55. s. 157.

23.(1) Section one hundred and fifty-seven of the Public Health Act, 1875, shall be extended so as to empower every urban authority to make byelaws with respect to the following matters; that is to say:—

The keeping waterclosets supplied with sufficient water for flushing;

The structure of floors, hearths, and staircases, and the height of rooms intended to be used for human habitation;

The paving of yards and open spaces in connexion with dwelling-houses; and

The provision in connexion with the laying out of new streets of secondary means of access where necessary for the purpose of the removal of house refuse and other matters.

(2) Any byelaws under that section as above extended with regard to the drainage of buildings, and to waterclosets, earth-closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools, in connexion with buildings, and the keeping waterclosets supplied with sufficient water for flushing, may be made so as to affect buildings erected before the times mentioned in the said section.

(3) The provisions of the said section (as amended by this Act), so far as they relate to byelaws with respect to the structure of walls and foundations of new buildings for purposes of health, and with respect to the matters mentioned in sub-sections (3) and (4) of the said section, and with respect to the structure of floors, the height of rooms to be used for human habitation, and to the keeping of waterclosets supplied with sufficient water for flushing, shall be extended so as to empower rural authorities to make byelaws in respect to the said matters, and to provide for the observance of such byelaws, and to enforce the same as if such powers were conferred on the rural authorities by virtue of an order of the Local Government Board made on the day when this part of this Act is adopted; and section one hundred and fifty-eight of the Public Health Act, 1875, shall also apply to any such authority, and shall be in force in every rural district where this part of this Act is adopted.

(4) Every local authority may make byelaws to prevent buildings which have been erected in accordance with byelaws made under the Public Health Acts from being altered in such a way that if at first so constructed they would have contravened the byelaws.