Huddersfield Chronicle (19/Sep/1868) - The Huddersfield Water Supply

The following is a transcription of a historic newspaper article and may contain occasional errors. If the article was published prior to 1 June 1957, then the text is likely in the Public Domain.

THE HUDDERSFIELD WATER SUPPLY.

We are glad to learn that the Corporation have lost no time in directing their attention to this most desirable object, and that they have made some progress in the arrangements for an application to Parliament next session. On Tuesday evening a meeting took place at the Waterworks Commissioners’ boardroom, Spring Street, between the Parliamentary Committee of the Waterworks Commissioners and the General Purposes Committee of the Town Council, which last-named committee consists of the chairman and vice-chairman of each of the Council Committees, Mr. George Crowther, the engineer to the Commissioners, attended and presented a report upon the engineering features of the new scheme, and especially , with reference to some recent surveys he had made, which were further illustrated by plans and sections produced. After a lengthened discussion, the arrangements were settled for an application to Parliament, and were embodied in resolutions which were prepared and settled by the Town Clerk and the Clerk to the Waterworks Commissioners, and which were afterwards adopted unanimously by the respective committees. The Corporation are to promote an application to Parliament next session, jointly with the Waterworks Commissioners, but at the sole risk and expense of the Corporation, for the immediate transfer of the existing works, powers, and obligations of the Waterworks Commissioners to the Corporation, and for powers to the Corporation to execute new works, the Corporation, in the event of any divergence of opinion between them and the Commissioners respecting the details of the scheme or proceedings, to have the control, and to take all responsibility of the measure.

This arrangement appears to be a satisfactory one for the public interest of the borough, and it is gratifying to observe that the Waterworks Commissioners, as another leading public body in the town, are following the lead of the Improvement Commissioners in recognising the propriety of transferring their undertaking to the Corporation, so as to vest in that body, as the representative local authority of the whole borough, the management of its various interests. It seems also fair that the Corporation, on taking as they propose the sole risk and cost of the application upon themselves, should have the controlling voice in the conduct of the proceedings.