Description:Mr. Dalton, another Assistant Secretary from the Local Government Board wrote to George Kent informing him that considering the ‘scientific evidence’ of ‘subsidence’ on the Stone Road site that the Board would ‘not further press upon the consideration of the Town Council the question of the selection of this site’. However, Dalton expressed reservations about the Court House site noting that it was ‘open to serious objection’. These objections were based on ‘the close proximity’ of the site to the ‘ovens and kilns’ of surrounding factories. Remarking on the ‘very heavy’ costs entailed, Dalton noted further ‘doubt’ whether the space proposed by the Town Council was ‘sufficient for the provision of the buildings’.
The letters relating to the controversy over Longton’s municipal buildings contain technical reports by mining engineers Richard Harris, Joseph Lobley and William Heath on the Stone Road site and the state of subsidence in the area.