Leagrave and Limbury fire engine 1925
Fire and water were elements of debates involving Leagrave in April 1916. At the annual meeting of the parish council a question was raised about whether the village needed a fire brigade, while concerns were raised by Luton Rural District Council over on-going flooding problems in Midland Road [now Mostyn Road] made worse by a recent severe storm.
At the RDC meeting, Medical Officer Dr Rollings described conditions in Midland Road over the previous three weeks as deplorable. Houses had been flooded, dome wells were overflowing into gardens and homes and up to a few days earlier at least two houses still had water seven inches deep under the front room floors.
The situation was the result of an abnormal rise in the ground water level that had happened twice before in the previous 50 years, but then the district was not built on. Midland Road was part of a valley running through the hills between Luton and Dunstable to the River Lea and was now intersected by the Midland Railway.
Owing to heavy rainfall the lower part of this area was waterlogged, the ground water level being a few inches below the surface. The flooding was a public health concern because there was a cookery centre in Midland Road that had had to be closed.
Surveyor Mr Pickering said the flooding was not chiefly due to the Council's drain but to the fact that cottages in Midland Road had been constructed at a considerably lower level than the road. Had they been at road level the water would not have got into the rooms. Tenants were having to live upstairs with an awful smell from the insanitary conditions below.
The situation was left for a meeting of the Highways Committee and Surveyor to be held on the spot, after which the Surveyor recommended deepening a manhole at the top of Midland Road, near the railway, creating a catch-pit to trap silt and creating an additional manhole and catch-pit midway between Boundary Road and Marsh Road.
[When the question of less severe flooding in Midland Road had been raised by the RDC in November 1915, it was said the problem appeared to be caused to some extent by the silting up of catch-pits that needed to the cleared out between Marsh Road and the River Lea.]
The fire brigade question arose over the appointment of a Leagrave parish council representative to the joint committee of the Leagrave and Limbury Fire Brigade. When Mr Amos Glenister was suggested, he said he would have nothing to do with it because at the present time the Fire Brigade was not properly organised.
If a fire occurred the members of the Brigade could not be got together owing to the fact that all of them did not live in the district. The Luton Brigade could be on the scene before the local brigade.
Vice-Chairman Mr W. A. Dickens said he was willing to serve on the committee, but he did not see the necessity of the Fire Brigade as it was only used for the benefit of other parishes. He looked upon the upkeep of the Brigade as a waste of money, as £10 a year was spent in retaining fees.
If he attended a meeting of the joint committee and no other Leagrave representatives were present, he would have nothing more to do with the committee.
[The Luton News: Thursday, April 20th, 1916 and May 18th, 1916; The Luton Reporter: Monday, April 24th, 1916]