| Description | The minutes are handwritten and signed by the committee chairman. The early volumes are without a spine cover and labelled 'Baths & Wash-House Committee' or 'Baths & Parks Committee' on the cover. Later volumes have the title on the spine and from volume 6 onwards, a minute book number and alphabetical index as well. The minutes include handwritten copies of the reports of the Baths and Parks Sub-Committees touching on more detailed business of their respective functional area. There are copies of the printed committee reports to Council; details on proposed sites and works schemes for public parks; details on proposed sites and work schemes for new and existing public baths; damage to trees, plants and associated buildings in parks and other public places as a result of storm damage or vandalism; some staffing information; accounts and statements of income and expenditure; and related correspondence and papers. Some minutes include reports of accidents to members of the public, particularly children, in public baths and parks, and there are also applications considered on the part of organisations wishing to hold public events and even demonstrations in the city's open spaces. The minutes of 7 October 1907 include a detailed proposal for a new public park at Beacon Hill, Rednal, showing the process by which the Council was beginning to acquire land on the outskirts of the city in order to preserve green spaces for the benefit of its citizens (see minute 3012 in BCC/1/AL/1/1/14). The minutes of 6 April 1908 also include a report detailing the provision of parks and playgrounds in central Birmingham, for the benefit of residents living in proposed slum clearance and redevelopment areas (see minute 3168 in BCC/1/AL/1/1/14). A proposed report to a Council meeting of 13 October 1908 (included in the minutes of 29 September) includes a plan of a proposed new Boating Pool at Ward End Park (see minute 3285 in BCC/1/AL/1/1/14). The minutes of 7 June 1909 include copies of draft bye-laws governing the rules and regulations governing the use of Birmingham's parks for Council staff and members of the public (see minutes 3510 - 3511 in BCC/1/AL/1/1/14). |