Country Life
COMPETING COUNCILS.
Countrymen, who concern themselves with the reconstruction of village life begin to be conscious of a missing link in local government. The county councils and the rural district councils either overlap or leave a gap. What is wanted is some sort of liaison officer between the two. In the latest Act special pro- vision is made for an alliance between the two ; and this clause ought to be especially familiar to everyone engaged in any housing scheme, especially if he is a member of a rural district council. His council may borrow men, money and advice from the bigger organization. However zealous and well-conducted, the rural district councils often prove a barrier to progress because of the conflict between the im- portance of their powers and the smallness of their scale. When Lord Milner, a great pioneer in this regard, first set on foot a constructive planning scheme for Kent, three parts and more of his energy were spent in attempting a get-together," as they say in America, of a dozen or so rural district councils. Many housing schemes need association both between contiguous rural councils and the county councils. And rural housing is still in a deplorable state. The herding of old and young, of male and female in one room of an officially condemned cottage, is common, to the ruin both of health and morality.
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