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82
The number of houses in the Borough is 18,122.
The following streets in the Borough have not been inspected
yet:—
East Ward—High Street and New Cross Road.
North Ward—Evelyn Street.
North-West Ward—Edric Road, Billington Road, Casella Road,
Nettleton Road (part of), Leylang Road, and New Cross Road
(part of).
South Ward—Excepting Foxwell Street, Martin's Buildings and
Tolhurst Street, none of this ward has been done.
South-East Ward—Lewisham High Road, Tyrwhitt Road, Tressillian
Road, Albert Road, Clifton Road, Carlton Road, Crescent Way,
Hilly Fields Crescent and Cliff Terrace.
South-West Ward—Troutbeck Road, Jerningham Road, Pepys
Road, Waller Road, Erlanger Road, Musgrove Road, Ommaney Road,
Arbuthnot Road, Kitto Road, Drakefell Road, Bousfield Road,
Gellatly Road, Lausanne Road, Aspinall Road, St. Asaph Road,
Avignon Road and Queens Road (part of).
Section 28 Housing and Town Planning Act, 1919. This valuable
section of the Act is at present not in full use. Under this section if a
notice of twenty-one days failed to have the houses made fit for human
habitation, the Council could do the work and recover the cost in the
manner provided by the Act. The usefulness of this section has been
largely destroyed owing to adverse decisions in the Law Courts, in asmuch
as it has been decided that an owner has a right of appeal AFTER
the work has been done by a borough council. It is desirable that the
Act should be amended to prevent an appeal after the work has been
carried out. At present the owners can appeal to the Minister of
Health on two grounds, (1) Unreasonable requirements of the notice.
(2) Excessive cost incurred by the borough council in the execution of
the works. The present state of affairs means that a Medical Officer
of Health has to exercise extreme care in specifying the particular
works requiring to be carried out, and to prevent an owner from
alleging that the cost of the work is excessive, tenders should be
obtained for carrying out the work.
Section 28 should be revised by a clause in the new Housing Bill.