Reference
CC/GP
Title
General Purposes Committee 1889 - 1947
Date free text
1889-1947
Production date
From: 1889 To: 1947
Scope and Content
The General Purposes committee was set up on 7 November 1889. The brief was:
- To advise the Council on all matters under the control of the Council in relation to Public Health, Pollution of Rivers, The Sale of Goods and Drugs Acts, the Margarine Act, the Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act, the Explosives Act, the Wild Birds Protection Acts, Isolation Hospitals Act, Shop Hours Act, the appointment and payment of the County Medical Officer of Health, Bills before Parliament affecting the County Council or the interests of the County, or referred to them by the Council;
- To recommend to the Council the names of the members whom they recommend should be placed upon the various Committees of the Council, and upon the Standing Joint Committee of the Quarter Sessions and County Council.
A separate Explosives Act Committee to execute the powers under the Explosives Act 1875, was transferred to the County Council under the 1888 Local Government Act, and the committee was set up by the county Council on 15 July 1889. It appears in the Yearbook 1897/8, but not in the Yearbook 1898/9, when its powers had been transferred to the General Purposes Committee. [G.P.E.]
On 24 January 1896 the County Council had set up an Advertisements Committee:
- To select at the commencement of each Financial Year, one Newspaper published and circulating in the Northern Division of the County, and one in the Southern Division, in which Advertisements relating to the whole County shall be inserted during the year.
This committee is in the Yearbook 1899/1900, but by the next year its functions had been given to the General Purposes Committee.
A Local Government Committee was established in 1894 [see L.G.]:
- to advise the Council on all questions (not referred to some other Committee) arising out of the Local Government Act 1894, and as to the division of the County into Polling Districts for Parliamentary Elections, the appointment of Polling places and the places of holding Courts for the revision of the lists of electors;
- as to the division of the County and Electoral Divisions therein into Polling Districts for the election of County Councillors;
- as to the powers and duties of the council under the Acts relating to the Registrations of of Parliamentary, Local Government and Parochial Electors;
- as to matters arising under Sections 54 and 57 of the Local Government Act 1888;
- to make such Orders and take such proceedings on behalf of the Council under the Local Government Act 1894, of an administrative and not of a discretionary character, as may from time to time be necessary.
By 1904 these functions had been transferred to the General Purposes Committee.
By 1910 the Committee was called Public Health, Housing and General Purposes.
By 1913 the Committee was charged additionally:
- To have charge of the new building adjoining the Shire Hall.
By 1921 the functions were much as above, except for action under the Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act, which no doubt had passed to the new County Agricultural Committee.
By 1932 additional powers were:
- to execute all the powers and duties of the Council under the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act 1915 (except the pwer of raising a rate or borrowing money) and any Order made under the said Act extending or amending the same;
- to have charge of all the buildings adjoining the Shire Hall which have been erected or acquired by the County Council;
- to advise the Council on all questions arising under Section 48 of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925
- to watch the progress in Parliament of all Bills affecting the interests of the County, and to report theron;
- to tall all necessary action between the meetings of the Council to protect the interests of the County in connection with any Parliamentary Bills.
In "Fifty Years' Work of the Bedfordshire County Council 1938", the General Purposes Committee's functions are described under three heads. The Committee was still Public Health, Housing and General Purposes Committee:
"1. PUBLIC HEALTH For the administration of strictly sanitary laws the County Council has no direct responsibility, but its duties as a medical authority are yearly growing ........ The increasing desire to raise the national standard of health, led in 1929 to the appointment of a full-time County Medical Officer. the principal matters which fall under his care are:
a) Medical inspection of .... school children .... since 1920 this service has included dental treatment ....
b) Treatment of tuberculosis was added to the duties of the County Council in 1911. Three dispensaries have been opened since 1913, and the resident Sanatorium at Moggerhanger, opened in 1919m can take 84 patients
c) Maternity and Child Welfare, a service which began in 1915 [see C.W.]
d) Treatment of Venereal Disease. Clinics have been held at Bedford and Luton since 1918 ...
e) Mental Treatment and Mental Deficiency .... Among other duties of the Committee are supervision or inspection of boarded-out children, of Nursing and Maternity Homes...; and a wath is kept on the pollution of rivers ....
2. HOUSING The County Council does not function as a housing authority, except when some other body has failed to act.
3. GENERAL PURPOSES any matter for attention which is not already assigned to some other Committee comes under this head .... The organisation of elections ..."
This Committee ceased in 1947, and most functions went to the new Local Government Committee [see L.G.]. The Committee was superseded by the Health Committee under the National Health Act 1946.
For Orders made by the General Purpose Committee, see CCO2/5. For Applications etc. under Rural Workers Housing Acts, see CCAA 280, County Council Agreements and Contracts, under "General and Various".
Level of description
sub-fonds