The Roads and Transport Congress and Exhibition.
Page 11
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AN excellent idea of the importance of the Public Works, Roads and Transport Congress and Exhibition, which opens at the Agricultural Hall on November 10th for a period of one week, can be gained from the fact that the Local Government services of the country are now mainly administered through 62 County Councils, 82 County Borough Councils, 29 Metropolitan Borough Councils (including the City of London), '253 non-County Borough Councils, 784 Urban District Councils and 648 Rural District Councils. This list by no means exhausts all those bodies which bear some share in the Local Government of Great Britain, but it does contain the principal agents through which control of municipal services is effected. It is obvious that with this number of authorities concerned with municipal affairs new ideas in the administration of local service must constantly crop up and new machinery devised to meet changes in practice.
The general clearing-house for such advancement in knowledge is the biennial Congress and Exhibition held in London, and the organizers lay great stress on the fact that this is primarily a congress to which delegates from all over the kingdom are invited to hear papers read on developments in public service and to take part in the valuable discussions which follow. In this way a useful contribution is made towards the maintenance of the Local Government services at the highest pitch of their efficiency. The arrangements for the forthcoming Congress and Exhibition are now complete, and two sessions Will be held each day during the period of the Congress, the first at 11.30 a.m. and the second at 2.30 p.m. The chairmen who have consented to preside at these sessions are, we are told, all known as high authorities cn the papers to be read. The subjects of these papers will cover a very broad field, and those that are of outstanding interest to our readers bear the following titles:—" The Use of Tar in the Construction of Roadways " ; "Road Corrugation " ; "Repair of Roads Against Tramway Tracks"; "Rural Roads" ; and 'The Strengthening and Widening of Bridges," whilst a further paper dealing with methods of -refuse collection and disposal should attract considerable attention.
Some 60,000 sq. ft. of space have already been applied for and allotted, so that the display of machinery, plant and materials will be of a most comprehensive nature. We published a list of exhibitors of chief concern to our readers in our issue dated October 27th.
It is expected that a profit will result from this year's Congress and Exhibition, and the organizing committee has shown a public-spirited action in deciding that any profit which may result shall be devoted to the establishment of a British Chair of Highway Engineering at one of the Universities, in order to afford scope for the more specialized training to meet the needs of present and future students.