NRS-16865 | Minutes of the Leichhardt Annandale Garbage Destructor Committee [Leichhardt Council] [Annandale Council]

This series consists of minutes from meetings of the Garbage Destructor Committee, a joint committee of Leichhardt and Annandale Councils.The Leichhardt Council Minutes of 23 December 1901 contain a report of a conference between Annandale and Leichhardt Councils recommending the formation of a joint garbage destructor committee. The first identified meeting of the Committee is referred to in the Council Minutes of 3 March 1902 where it is stated that the Committee 'met on 24th Feby 1902 at 5 PM on Piper St Bridge'. The minutes of 8 May 1902 meeting state: 'That the Mayors of Leichhardt and Annandale act alternately, year by year, as Chairman of the Committee, that the Council Clerks of the two Councils act alternately in conjunction with their mayors as Secretary of the Committee, and that the meetings be held alternately, year by year, in the Council Chambers of the Boroughs'.The two volumes that make up this series contain handwritten minutes of the meetings and are arranged chronologically by date of meeting. Recorded in the minutes are the names of persons attending the meetings and details of business dealt with by the Committee, including correspondence, payment of accounts and motions passed. Matters dealt with in the Minutes include obtaining a site for the destructor; arrangements for gas, water and sewerage; insurance; fencing of the site; purchase of coal for the destructor stack; loans and other financial arrangements; testing of the destructor (prior to commissioning); visits to the destructor site and enquiries by other councils; payment of accounts; destructor repairs, cleaning and maintenance (eg furnace, hopper, boiler); complaints about smoke coming from the destructor; legal issues, including dispute with contractor; appointment of person to be placed in charge of the destructor; charging for incineration of garbage received from individuals and other councils; quantities of coal, water etc. used in the operation of the destructor; quantities of garbage incinerated, and ashes and clinker removed etc.The date the committee ceased to operate is subject to research. By August 1908 the Health Committee was dealing with both minor and major matters relating to the operation of the garbage destructor. The Health Committee minutes of 16 March 1910 record that the agreement with Annandale Council for use of the destructor was to be extended for five years (until 1915).Section 109 of the Municipalities Act of 1867 (31 Vic. No.12), which was assented to on 23 December 1867, allowed municipal councils to appoint either standing committees or occasional (special) committees, composed of councillors, and to delegate to the committees 'any inquiry negotiation or arrangement or power to do any emergent act or to carry out any work which such Council may have ordered agreed to or directed'. However, Committees had to report to the council at the earliest opportunity.The reports and recommendations document the decisions made by the Committee at its meetings. The minutes of each meeting of the Committee were confirmed at the following committee meeting and signed by the chairman to guarantee that they were a true and accurate record.However such recommendations were not binding upon Council. The Committee's recommendations were normally submitted to the next Council meeting. Council could reject the recommendation, send the recommendation back to the committee for further discussion, amend the recommendation, or accept the recommendation. The recommendations were not binding upon Council unless, and until, adopted by Council as shown in the minutes of the Council meeting.