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72
Separate W.C. Accommodation in Schools.—In the last Annual Report a case was
quoted in which the Battersea Vestry was upheld iu refusing to sanction the construction
of "trough" instead of "separate" W.C.'s in the Shillington Street
Board School.
Since then, in July, an appeal has been made against the disapproval of your
Vestry to the construction of latrines at the St. Dominic's Girls' School in Southampton
Road, and your Vestry also has been upheld by the London County Council
in refusing sanction to the construction of such W.C.'s in schools.
Leaky Drainage.—The remarks in the earlier part of this report upon the paving
of yards, apply also to the rendering of drains watertight. Practical experiments
prove the great danger caused by pollution of the soil, whether from leaky yards
or from leaky drains, and under dwelling houses the danger must be greatly increased,
although an unpaved yard may also be the means by which liquid pollution
and washings may soak and percolate into and contaminate the soil under a
house. In this sense, the imperviously paved and sloped surface of a yard may be
regarded as part of the drainage system of a house.
REFUSE REMOVAL.
At the end of the first quarter of the year the system of dust collection that had
been successfully working for the past five years was altered by your Vestry undertaking
the collection in the East and West Divisions of the Parish without the
intervention of a contractor, and the work of supervising these two Divisions is now
carried on by another Committee, supervision of the North and South Divisions
still remaining in the Health Department.
Refusals.—With the object of endeavouring to ascertain what the average
number of refusals is per week under a system of permissive weekly collection, the
return sheets have been carefully extracted for four weeks in June, and four weeks
in November, 1896, and the weekly mean struck for each period of the year in each
of the Divisions and Sub-Divisions of the Parish. It will be noticed that at about
every third house the removal of the dust is refused when the dustman makes his
weekly call.