[128] It is incumbent upon the undertakers intending to break up a road to communicate beforehand their proposed plan or method of executing the work to the road authority, and this in a sufficient manner to enable the road authority to judge whether what is proposed ought to be done without modification. The plan should, therefore, show the position on the road of the proposed excavation, and its depth. (Edgware Highway Board _v._ Colne Valley Water Company, 46 L. J. ch. 889.) [129] This precaution was necessary, as the smell of the old mains was naturally very offensive and a nuisance. [130] In some towns it is the practice to give the builder a junction pipe or block for nothing, thus ensuring his calling to give notice, but this is only successful in the case of new attachments to sewers, in which case the law is much more strict. CHAPTER XVI. OBSTRUCTIONS IN STREETS. For convenience, I propose to treat in this chapter some subjects which, strictly speaking, do not come under the head of “obstructions,” but they are all questions which have to be considered by the town surveyor; temporary obstructions and other offences with which it is the province of the police to deal are omitted. The following subjects will therefore be discussed: (1.) Improving the line of frontages of streets. (2.) Removing projections. (3.) Doors and gates opening outwards. (4.) Vault or cellar coverings. (5.) Rain-water shutes and down-pipes. (6.) Blinds or awnings over footpaths. (7.) Trees over-hanging roadways. (8.) Surface water from private premises running over footpaths. (9.) Hoardings and scaffolds. (10.) Dangerous buildings. (1.) _Improving the Line of Frontages of Streets._--By the Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847, certain powers were granted which enabled the commissioners to agree with owners of property to set back for the purpose of widening any street,[131] but this was often found to be difficult and wearisome of accomplishment, consequently in the Public Health Act 1875, the following important clause bearing upon this point was inserted. “Where any house or building situated in any street in an urban district, or the front thereof, has been taken down in order to be rebuilt or altered, the urban authority may prescribe the line in which any house or building, or the front thereof, to be built or rebuilt in the same situation shall be erected, and such house or building or the front thereof shall be erected in accordance therewith. The urban authority shall pay or tender compensation to the owner or other person immediately interested in such house or building for any loss or damage he may sustain in consequence of his house or building being set back or forward, the amount of such compensation in case of dispute to be settled by arbitration in manner provided by this Act” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 155).