THE GOLDEN-AGE OF MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING - A LIVERPOOL OVERVIEW

Although Liverpool appointed Britain's first full-time Borough Enginee r, there had been successful municipal engineering at an earlier date, Technical improvements in water supply, sanitation and housing the lo west-paid workers required major attitude changes on the part of ratep ayers, voters and decision-makers. In Liverpool, as in some other majo r towns, both the techniques and the will to apply them pre-dated any exact scientific understanding of the nature of infectious diseases, O nce these changes began, and were seen to be succeeding, the scope and extent of municipal engineering grew very rapidly. Some of the larges t-scale activities, notably electricity supply and electric tramways w ere able to produce significant net revenues, and even 'labourers' dwe llings' were self-sufficient, In the first quarter of this century, ro ad and tramway schemes were systematically employed as a form of long- term social and economic planning.