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11
the corporation's building proposals.
The Corporation is the local authority under the Housing Acts and as such
has decided to erect dwellings in accordance with the requirements of the Housing
Town Planning, &c., Act, 1919. In view of the fact that the City is mainly used
by large business firms for administrative purposes such as banks, various
exchanges, large insurance offices and shipping and other concerns, it was considered
advisable that such houses as the Corporation did erect should in the main be
intended for persons in clerical employ, and that in making provision the requirements
of the younger married clerk who can only afford a small house, or perhaps
part of a house, should not be overlooked. As such employees do not in general
require to be in the City before 9 o'clock, or even more generally between the
hours of 9 and 10 o'clock, the Corporation was enabled to select a site some few
miles away from the City with the knowledge that it would be practicable for
residents so employed to afford the time necessary to go to and from their
business.
After consideration of several sites a position at Ilford was finally selected
on which to build some 2,000 houses, and at the same time various properties
owned by the Corporation within the area of the Administrative County were
considered on which to house a number of persons of a different class, namely
those who would find it necessary to live nearer to their work. The proposal
is to build mainly separate houses at Ilford and self-contained flats on
three storeys on the Hercules Road and Old Kent Road sites. Forty-eight
flats will be erected forthwith on the Old Kent Road site and a similar
number on the Hercules Road site. A further 104 flats are also contemplated on the
former site.
It is hoped that the occupation of houses at Ilford will result in the removal
of certain families resident at present within the greater London Area to this
outer site, and that the wave thus created may affect even the City area, and
that when both the Corporation and County Council schemes are completed
there may be sufficient vacant houses in the centre to allow of the residents
in the Hutchison Street finding accommodation in close proximity to their
present homes.
In addition the Housing Committee have decided that any resident in the
Hutchison Street Area shall have a preferential claim to accommodation in
Hercules Road or Old Kent Road, and even to a house at Ilford, if so
desired.
The interest of your Medical Officer of Health in this scheme has been mainly
concerned with the suitability of the site for housing and with general approval
of some of the proposals from a sanitary point of view.
At the present time consideration is being given to the question of centralising
on the Ilford site all services connected with recent medical developments
and social hygiene, with the object of giving practical effect to certain of
the principles laid down by the Ministry and Committees associated with the
Ministry.
vaccination.
Of the 460 births notified to the Vaccination Officers during 1919, 109 had been
successfully vaccinated by the end of the year, 46 had died before the age for
vaccination, and in no case was a child reported as insusceptible. Vaccination was
postponed by medical certificate in 3 cases, 233 had removed into other districts, or
the vaccinations were pending at the end of the year. There were 69 instances of
conscientious objection. The Public Vaccinators performed 25 re-vaccinations
during the year.