MISAPPLICATION OF BY-LAW POWER.
[To THE EDITOE or THE " SPECTAT011."3
Sit,—The use of a detail to defeat the principle to which its origin was due is seen in the prevalent by-law which stipulates that cottage rooms must be eight feet or eight feet six inches high. A case in point is that which recently deprived the little town of Long Sutton (Lines) of some low-rented cottages which are an urgent local need.
Through private energies a local Housing Society was formed and a replica of a block of some cottages built at Letchworth, and which had been found satisfactory to their tenants, was chosen as part of the first scheme. The plans were examined and passed by H.M. Office of Works, but did not fulfil the local by-law that all rooms should be at least eight feet high, and so the Society was compelled to omit from its scheme the cottages which are most wanted. For it was found that to alter the height of the rooms to eight feet would =tail an additional expenditure of £75 for the block of four, which would have forced up the rent to a sum which the particlar type of cottage could not bear.
Unreason in building regulations or by-laws is not a matter of quantity. Where the whole scale is in miniature, as in cottage building, even the slightest unnecessary expenditure, though it be but a few pounds per cottage, is intrinsically unreasonable. Any by-law that does not study economy in building is weakest where it should be strongest in so far as rural housing is concerned.
Insistence that a room shall be eight feet high without in- sistence on a minimum of cubic space is not a protection to health. Under the Long Sutton by-laws a room could be built a yard square as long as it fulfilled the vertical standard of eight feet. The time has come to urge that cubic space and
floor area rather than vertical measurement shall be used to obtain structural healthfulness. This is already the case at
Letchworth, where the majority of cottage ceilings are under
eight feet, and an official, writing of the experience there, says :—
"We attach more importance to the cubical contents of the rooms and the ventilation than to a rigid height of 8 feet. Our rule is that houses intended for a family must contain at least one living room having a floor area of 144 square feet ; it must have one bedroom having a floor area of not less than 136 square feet, and containing not less 1,070 cubic feet, and the smallest bedroom must contain not less than 500 cubic feet. We consider that the provision of air space is better met by the stipulation as to cubic contents than by a standard height, and it is questionable whether the air over 7 feet 6 inches is so rapidly changed as to be valuable to health and ventilation generally."
The cottages rejected by the Long Sutton Council fulfilled the Letchworth standard.
Not only for economic reasons, but also from the standpoint of health and artistry, no ordinary ceiling needs to be eight feet high where there is proper ventilation. And if that is lacking one 17 feet or even 70 feet high is only an air trap and dangerous to health.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ERNEST BETHAM.
Rural Co-partnership Housing Association, 4 Tacistock Square, W.C.
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