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117
I would strongly urge the careful consideration of
this scheme by the Council, as combined with the
efforts now being made by private individuals, it
should go far in removing a state of things discreditable
to the Sanitary Authority.
More, too, should be done by the Council in the
direction of sanitary supervision, and the stringent enforcement
of all enactments dealing with overcrowding
and other insanitary conditions, as this cannot be
done with the existing sanitary staff.
It must be remembered that there are only five
District Inspectors to deal with some 20,000 houses,
occupied by 157,000 persons, and as their duties have
been much increased of late, it is not possible to exercise
the constant supervision which districts like this
require to produce satisfactory results.
Tenements, such as I have described, should be
visited systematically at least every three months, and
in my opinion an additional Inspector should be appointed
to deal with Heckfield Place, the Avenues,
Cassidy Road, and any other area that may appear to
require special attention.
In considering any recommendation, the Committee
will not, I am sure, pay too great a regard to the
bugbear of expense, for setting aside the clamant
nature of the evil they have to contend with, the cost
to the community of an area like this is enormous.
One item I have mentioned, viz., 78 children from
Heckfield Place in Industrial Schools, means an expenditure
of about £1,500 a year, and when we think
of all the others supported by the community in the
workhouses, infirmaries, and asylums, and realise that unless
the conditions can be altered the area will continue to
be a fertile breeding place of similar encumbrances,
the Committee will recognise that expenditure incurred
in the reasonable hope of minimising the evils is
amply justified.