London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Coulsdon and Purley 1945

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Coulsdon]

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DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.
Owing to the great difficulty of obtaining labour and materials
beyond the requirements for remedying war damage, only repairs to
drainage systems were carried out during 1945.
The approximate numbers of each type of closet accommodation
at the end of the year were:—
Premises with water closets drained to sewers 15,202
Premises with pail closets excluding temporary buildings
used for A.R.P. purposes 216
Number of cesspools 164
The number of cesspools was reduced by 46 in 1939 to a total of
171, which has since been slightly reduced.
Similarly nine pail closets were abolished in 1939, though the total
was considerably increased for temporary use at shelters, wardens' posts,
etc. Four were abolished in 1940, a few after that, while in 1945 the
majority of the temporary closets were discarded.
PUBLIC CLEANSING.
Until 1941 a weekly collection of house refuse was in vogue but this
had to be reduced to a fortnightly collection which it had been
impracticable to improve upon by the end of 1945.
From time to time special drives for salvage purposes were made
during the war years.
The charges for trade refuse removal and for cesspool emptying
have remained unaltered throughout.
SMOKE ABATEMENT.
The chimneys of the small factories in the District give little trouble
and observation of these and the few large chimney stacks has never
resulted in any major problem.
53

Destructor was 28.32 inches, the monthly totals and annual rainfall during the war years being as follows:—

1945.Annual Totals.
January2.66 inches193936.49 inches
February2.22 do.
March1.23 do.194030.03 do.
April1.41 do.
May3.01 do.194130.41 do.
June2.27 do.
July3.69 do.194228.93 do.
August1.96 do.
September2.09 do.194325.01 do.
October3.81 do.
November0.31 do.194426.94 do.
December3.66 do.
Total28.32 inches194528.32 do.