Public Health Act 1875

SCHEDULE III

Rules as to Resolutions of Owners and Ratepayers.

(1) For the purpose of passing a resolution of owners and ratepayers under this Act, a meeting shall be summoned on the requisition of any twenty ratepayers or owners, or of any twenty ratepayers and owners, resident in the district or place with respect to which the resolution is to be passed.

(2) The summoning officer of such meeting shall be—

• In boroughs, the mayor ;

• In improvement Act districts, the chairman of the improvement commissioners ;

• In local government districts, the chairman of the local board ;

• In places situated in any rural district or districts and having known-and defined boundaries, the churchwardens or one of them having jurisdiction co-extensive with the place; or if there are no churchwardens, the overseers or one of them having the like jurisdiction ; or if there is none of the officers respectively above enumerated, or if such officer in any case neglects, is unable, or refuses to perform the duties hereby imposed on him, by any person appointed by the Local Government Board.

Where the boundaries of a place are settled by order of the Local Government Board, the Board shall by such order appoint the summoning officer.

If any summoning officer appointed by the Local Government Board dies, becomes incapable, or refuses or neglects to act, the Local Government Board may appoint another officer in his room.

(3) Ratepayers or owners making a requisition for the summoning of such meeting shall, if required, give security in a bond, with two sufficient sureties, for repayment to the summoning officer, in the event of the resolution not being passed, of the costs incurred in relation to such meeting or any poll taken in: pursuance of any demand made thereat; the amount of the security to be given by such sureties, and their sufficiency, and the amount of such costs, to be settled by agreement between the summoning officer and such ratepayers or owners, or, in case of dispute, by a court of summary jurisdiction,

(4) The .summoning officer shall, on such requisition as aforesaid, fix a time and place for holding such meeting, and shall forthwith give notice thereof—

• By advertisement in some one or more of the local newspapers circulated in the district or place ;

• By causing such notice to be affixed to the principal doors of every church and chapel in the place to which notices are usually affixed.

(5) The summoning officer shall be the chairman of the meeting unless he is unable or unwilling to preside, in which case the meeting on assembling shall choose one of its number as chairman, who may, with the consent of a majority of the persons present, adjourn the same from time to time.

(6) The chairman shall propose to the meeting the resolution, and the meeting shall decide for or against its adoption : Provided, that if any owner or ratepayer demands that such question be decided by a poll of owners and ratepayers, such poll shall be taken by voting papers in the form O. in schedule IV. to this Act, in the same way and with the same incidents and conditions as to the qualification of electors and scale of voting, as to notice to be given by the returning officer, delivery filling up and collection of voting papers, as to the counting of votes, as to penalties for neglect or refusal to comply with the provisions of the Act, and in all respects whatsoever as is provided by the rules for the election of local boards in schedule II. to this Act; except that in districts or places where there is no register of owners and proxies under this Act, any owner or proxy shall be entitled to have a voting paper delivered to him if at least fourteen day3 before the last day appointed for delivery of the voting papers he sends a claim in writing to the summoning officer containing the particulars required by schedule II. to this Act to be contained in claims to be entered on the register of owners land proxies, and except that the provisions with respect to certain specified days of the month shall not apply.

For the purposes of such poll the summoning officer shall be the returning officer, and shall have the powers and perform the duties of a returning officer under schedule II. to this Act, so far as the same are applicable to a poll under this schedule.

If no poll is demanded, or the demand for a poll is withdrawn by the persons making the same, a declaration by the chairman shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence of the decision of such meeting.

(7) A copy, under the hand of the summoning officer, of every resolution so passed, shall be forwarded by him to the Local Government Board; and it shall be his duty to publish a copy thereof by advertisement for three successive weeks in some one or more of the local newspapers circulated in the district or place, and by causing a copy thereof to be affixed to the principal doors of every church and chapel in the place to which notices are usually affixed,

(8) Where in pursuance of a resolution passed in manner provided by this schedule any place is constituted a local government district, all costs incurred by the summoning officer in relation to the meeting, and any poll taken in pursuance of any demand made thereat, shall be a first charge on the general district rates leviable within such district; in the case of a resolution so passed by owners or ratepayers in any urban district, such cost shall be paid out of the fund or rate applicable by the urban authority to the general purposes of this Act.