Cork City Council Improvements Committee Minutes
TitreCork City Council Improvements Committee Minutes
RéférenceCP/CO/IM/M
Date
1881-1908
Date 1881 - 1908
Etendue et contenuThe Cork Improvement Act, 1880, laid down the powers and responsibilities of Cork Corporation with respect to improvement of the city area, and appears to have led to the creation of the Improvement Department. This Department had various responsibilities with regard to building work and other improvements to the fabric of the city. Overall, functions were divided between it and the full Council of the Corporation, the Law and Finance Committee, the Standing Committee, and others. The Department was responsible for administering the Corporation’s Improvement Fund, subject to the approval of the full Council, and had dealings with all committees and other departments making use of it. The fund was derived from an Improvement Rate, administered by the Department. The committee also approved payments from other municipal funds. This committee of the whole council sat as the board of the Improvement Department.
From January 1907, this committee was reconstituted as a Committee of the Whole Council (see below). There is a separate series of minutes of the Whole Council Committee [CP/C/WC/M], but it should be noted that the earliest minutes of this latter committee, from January 1907 to August 1908, are contained in the final volume of the present series. The Improvement Committee did not meet as a distinct committee after the end of 1906.
The present series begins in 1881, following the 1880 Act, but some earlier meetings regarding ‘Improvements’ are recorded in General Committee minutes (1867-89), including meetings of the Law and Finance and Standing and Sanitary Committees, which had ‘improvement’ functions. The former considered the Cork Improvement Bill, 1875, while a special committee on ‘Improvement of Market Front’ (Grand Parade Market) met the same year. The City Hall and Working Class Dwellings Committee, and the earlier Corporate Offices Committee, also discharged some ‘improvement’ functions. [See CP/CO/GC/M; CP/CO/CH/M]. Other Cork Improvement Acts were passed in 1852, 1868, 1875, and 1881. [See http://www.corkcity.ie/yourcouncil/managementsystem/localacts/]
The Committee met weekly, the primary function at most meetings being to order that cheques be passed as per the weekly payment book. From 24 April 1885, these payments are itemised in the minutes. Throughout the minutes, a great many other applications or matters arising were referred to the Standing Committee (from 1894, to the Public Works Committee), or other relevant committee, or Corporation officer (eg, City Engineer). These are generally applications for permission to carry out repairs or improvement work on sewers, buildings, roads, foot paths, and so on, sometimes at the expense of the applicant, or, more commonly, requests that such work be carried out by the Corporation. Legal and other correspondence received, suggestions from councillors, and City Engineer’s and other reports were usually similarly referred, although the committee did make orders on some matters. Letters and matters raised often related to public disturbances and events, as well as to other physical improvements, such as street lamp lighting. The committee also had powers with regard to certain functions covered by other committees, eg, making orders or recommendations on many public health, traffic, and public events matters. They also heard and made recommendations on many important matters on behalf of the full Council, eg, projected street tramways in 1891. In addition, many votes of sympathy and resolutions of a public character were made.
In ‘Rules’ inserted in minutes of 27 January 1893, it is stated ‘That the powers and duties of the Department be restricted to passing cheques, on the recommendation of the other Committees of the Council, and receiving applications in connection with the Paving, Macadamising, Cleansing, Watering, Sewering, and General Sanitary Control and Management of the Borough; with power to order any work under any of those heads at a cost not exceeding £5’. These rules would appear to have been created to define and limit the powers and functions of the Department, as it had come to address itself to an increasing number of subjects in the preceding years.
The meeting of 25 January 1907 records the Order of Council of 28 December 1906 stating that a committee of the whole Council is to sit on the last Friday of each month ‘for the purpose of authorising the issue of all orders to the Bank for the monthly advances to the Treasurer and payments to Contractors and others on the recommendation of the monthly Finance Committee, countersigned by the Town Clerk or Law Agent as a guarantee that such payments are legal and duly authorised’. The Law and Finance Committee met once a month as the monthly Finance Committee to examine and recommend payments. See also Whole Council Committee minutes.
The present series is important in documenting capital and ordinary expenditure by the Corporation on improvement works, and applications and requests for such works, including permissions given for private work. It should be viewed in conjunction with minutes of the Standing Committee and, later, the Public Works Committee, to which many applications and matters were referred. The Law and Finance Committee minutes, as well as those of the full Council, also record decisions and discussions on improvements matters, while in the minutes of other committees references from the Improvement Department and payments to or from the Improvement Fund are frequently noted. There is also much overlap, in the areas of street sanitation and traffic, with the work of the Public Health and the Hackney Carriage Committees, respectively. Minutes also document payments for materials, wages, and other expenses, throughout the Corporation, making them a valuable record of the management of the Council’s finances.
From January 1907, this committee was reconstituted as a Committee of the Whole Council (see below). There is a separate series of minutes of the Whole Council Committee [CP/C/WC/M], but it should be noted that the earliest minutes of this latter committee, from January 1907 to August 1908, are contained in the final volume of the present series. The Improvement Committee did not meet as a distinct committee after the end of 1906.
The present series begins in 1881, following the 1880 Act, but some earlier meetings regarding ‘Improvements’ are recorded in General Committee minutes (1867-89), including meetings of the Law and Finance and Standing and Sanitary Committees, which had ‘improvement’ functions. The former considered the Cork Improvement Bill, 1875, while a special committee on ‘Improvement of Market Front’ (Grand Parade Market) met the same year. The City Hall and Working Class Dwellings Committee, and the earlier Corporate Offices Committee, also discharged some ‘improvement’ functions. [See CP/CO/GC/M; CP/CO/CH/M]. Other Cork Improvement Acts were passed in 1852, 1868, 1875, and 1881. [See http://www.corkcity.ie/yourcouncil/managementsystem/localacts/]
The Committee met weekly, the primary function at most meetings being to order that cheques be passed as per the weekly payment book. From 24 April 1885, these payments are itemised in the minutes. Throughout the minutes, a great many other applications or matters arising were referred to the Standing Committee (from 1894, to the Public Works Committee), or other relevant committee, or Corporation officer (eg, City Engineer). These are generally applications for permission to carry out repairs or improvement work on sewers, buildings, roads, foot paths, and so on, sometimes at the expense of the applicant, or, more commonly, requests that such work be carried out by the Corporation. Legal and other correspondence received, suggestions from councillors, and City Engineer’s and other reports were usually similarly referred, although the committee did make orders on some matters. Letters and matters raised often related to public disturbances and events, as well as to other physical improvements, such as street lamp lighting. The committee also had powers with regard to certain functions covered by other committees, eg, making orders or recommendations on many public health, traffic, and public events matters. They also heard and made recommendations on many important matters on behalf of the full Council, eg, projected street tramways in 1891. In addition, many votes of sympathy and resolutions of a public character were made.
In ‘Rules’ inserted in minutes of 27 January 1893, it is stated ‘That the powers and duties of the Department be restricted to passing cheques, on the recommendation of the other Committees of the Council, and receiving applications in connection with the Paving, Macadamising, Cleansing, Watering, Sewering, and General Sanitary Control and Management of the Borough; with power to order any work under any of those heads at a cost not exceeding £5’. These rules would appear to have been created to define and limit the powers and functions of the Department, as it had come to address itself to an increasing number of subjects in the preceding years.
The meeting of 25 January 1907 records the Order of Council of 28 December 1906 stating that a committee of the whole Council is to sit on the last Friday of each month ‘for the purpose of authorising the issue of all orders to the Bank for the monthly advances to the Treasurer and payments to Contractors and others on the recommendation of the monthly Finance Committee, countersigned by the Town Clerk or Law Agent as a guarantee that such payments are legal and duly authorised’. The Law and Finance Committee met once a month as the monthly Finance Committee to examine and recommend payments. See also Whole Council Committee minutes.
The present series is important in documenting capital and ordinary expenditure by the Corporation on improvement works, and applications and requests for such works, including permissions given for private work. It should be viewed in conjunction with minutes of the Standing Committee and, later, the Public Works Committee, to which many applications and matters were referred. The Law and Finance Committee minutes, as well as those of the full Council, also record decisions and discussions on improvements matters, while in the minutes of other committees references from the Improvement Department and payments to or from the Improvement Fund are frequently noted. There is also much overlap, in the areas of street sanitation and traffic, with the work of the Public Health and the Hackney Carriage Committees, respectively. Minutes also document payments for materials, wages, and other expenses, throughout the Corporation, making them a valuable record of the management of the Council’s finances.
Etendue5 volumes
LangueEnglish
Mot clé de personneCork City Council, Cork Corporation
AccessOpen by appointment to those holding a current readers' ticket
Conditions de reproductionSubject to Rules Governing Reproduction of Records
Niveausérie
RepositoryCork City and County Archives