Signed minutes of the 1851 Bath Act Committee/Surveying and Sanitary Committees/Surveying Committee/Public Works Committee
Reference Number
BC/2/1/8
Level of Description
Series
Title
Signed minutes of the 1851 Bath Act Committee/Surveying and Sanitary Committees/Surveying Committee/Public Works Committee
Date
1851-1974
Extent
Extent: 36 vols
Description
The City of Bath Act Committee was set up to put into effect the provisions of the 1851 Bath Act. This Act enabled Bath to adopt many of the provisions of the Public Health Act of 1848, together with the addition of a number of Bath-specific provisions. Under the Act, the Council acquired a range of powers relating to public health including the provision of sewers; paving, cleansing and lighting of streets; registration of slaughter houses and lodging houses; and the creation of new streets.
From its first meeting in September 1851 until December 1871, the 1851 Bath Act Committee reported to the full Council. In December 1871, the Council changed the way in which it carried out its public health responsibilities: the detailed work of the 1851 Bath Act Committee passed to two new committees, the Sanitary Committee (which dealt with sewers, nuisances, slaughter houses, common lodging houses, smoke nuisances, offensive trades, and unwholesome food) and the Surveying Committee (which dealt with pitching, paving, lighting, scavenging, watering streets and roads). The policy decisions and high-level work of the 1851 Bath Act Committee was taken over by the Council meeting as the Urban Sanitary Authority, with the Sanitary and Surveying Committees reporting to these meetings.
From 1871 to 1906, although the Sanitary Committee and Surveying Committee met separately, the minutes of both committees are included in the same volume. From 1906, they are in separate volumes.
The Surveying Committee was renamed the Public Works Committee in 1968.
The Committees set up a number of sub-committees to deal with specific aspects of their work. These are arranged as follows:
BC/2/1/10-15 Sub-committees reporting to the 1851 Bath Act Committee, or to both the Sanitary and Surveying Committee, or to the Sanitary and the Surveying Committees separately but where the minutes are written in the same volume. Arranged in chronological order of the start date of the sub-committee BC/2/1/16- 27 Sub-committees reporting only to the Surveying Committee, arranged in chronological order of the start date of the sub-committee
