Town Planning

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 3

Town Planning

Sir, —I notice a sum of £21,334 in the City Council estimates for town planning, but is it true that the town planning regulations cannot legally be enforced? If so, some anomalies are explained. For instance, during the war, a relative of mine converted her home into a two-unit house and was threatened with legal proceedings by' the City Council because town planning requirements had not been complied with. I remember that plans in duplicate had to be forwarded to the council and fireproof partitions between the units installed. Yet in our street, only last year, a house was converted into two fiats, without any reference to the council at all. There are no fire-proof partitions. Permission was obtained to install an inside toilet; then the remainder of the room was converted into a kitchenette. Amenities in the other flat include an outside toilet and a washhouse-cum-kitchen, complete with brick copper, wooden tubs, gas cooker, and sink. Casual week-end labour was employed for the alterations. Yours, etc.,

MEH I VALE RATEPAYER*. June 30. 1959 * [The Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast) replies: “Town planning regulations can be and are being enforced. If the correspondent has any reason to believe that compliance with the regulations is being evaded in specific instances he should report the details to the council’s officers."]