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59
forward a proposal which would involve dealing with
the property by means of private enterprise. The
London County Council, several years ago, based an
indefinite postponement of any serious consideration of
an official representation affecting part of this area upon
a so-called understanding that the area would be
developed privately. The Council has received no proposal
from any source for dealing with this area, or
any part of it, in such manner as would remove the
grounds upon which the official representation of the
Medical Officer of Health was based.
At the Public Inquiry in October last, the Medical
Officer of Health submitted incontrovertible evidence of
the futility of dealing with separate houses in the Brady
Street area, and proved that several houses had been
closed under the provisions of the Housing Acts and
re-opened after repair, without any improvement being
made as regards the narrowness of the street on which
the houses abutted. The inevitable result followed, and
houses again became unfit for human habitation.
I am directed to remind the Board that the Council
has received no reply to the enquiry whether representations
are being made, or have been made, to the Board
by the London County Council on the subject since the
date of the Inquiry; nor to the further question whether
the Council may be made acquainted with the substance,
if not the terms, of the report of Major Norton.
I am to add that for many years the Council has
confirmed the" opinion of the Medical Officer of Health
for Bethnal Green that the Brady Street area is an unhealthy
area within the meaning of Part I. of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, and that