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Sewer Reconstruction Programme.
Towards the close of the year the Council gave further consideration
to a report prepared by the Borough Engineer and
Surveyor at the request of the Public Health Committee on the
condition of the local sewers of the Borough.
This report indicated that there was a number of local sewers
which were known to be in a bad condition and required attention
at an early date, while other sewers under the Council's jurisdiction
might also require to be reconstructed when their condition, which
could not at present be determined in the absence of adequate
means of access to them for examination purposes, was known.
The Public Health Committee reported on this matter to the
Council setting out in a comprehensive manner the measures which
were contemplated to deal with this important public health
service. The Council adopted the report and approved in principle
a large-scale sewer reconstruction programme involving an expenditure
of approximately £50,000 spread over a period of five years.
Public Cleansing.
This service is under the direct supervision of the Borough
Engineer and Surveyor. The improvements in the public cleansing
arrangements to be noted during 1937 were the replacement of a
sweeping and collecting machine by an improved type of machine
and two additional street refuse collecting vehicles.
In addition to the routine cleansing of the highways, a motor
sweeper is employed daily in the important shopping thoroughfares
and main roads. Sweeping gangs are also employed at night, and
the shopping centres in the Borough are swept on Sundays.
Road gullies are cleared out by vacuum gully emptiers—main
roads monthly and other roads every two months.
Six cesspools taking sewage matter from conveniences attached
to sports grounds were emptied by the Council at varying periods
during the year. At the end of the year the number of cesspools
had been reduced to two.
The removal of domestic house refuse is also a service for which
the Borough Engineer and Surveyor is responsible.
The general collection is weekly, but at L.C.C. Housing Estates
and similar block dwellings estates collection is made twice weekly
while at hospitals a daily collection takes place.
The collection of house and trade refuse is carried out by direct
labour and is then taken by a fleet of end-loading mechanical-tipping
refuse vehicles and loaded into barges on the Grand Surrey
Canal or into railway trucks at the Bricklayer's Arms siding and
conveyed by contractors to refuse dumps at Crayford and Sittingbourne.
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