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128
Housing.
The routine housing work of the Public Health
Department has been carried on as in former
years. This consists mainly of the inspection of
houses on complaint or other information being
received, on the occurrence of infectious diseases
and house to house inspection; as the result of
the inspections notices are served on the responsible
person to carry out the work and legal steps
are taken where necessary. In many cases advice
is given by the inspectors on housing and other
questions.
Co-operation between the staff, owners and
occupiers has improved as the result of the efforts
of the inspectors and the various parties concerned
often carry out much more than their legal requirements.
Freeholders have had a good deal of
work done also. Statistics of the housing work
of the inspectors will be found in this report
under the appropriate headings (See "Sanitary Inspection
of the District," page 92).
In Fulham all drainage work is dealt with by
the Public Health Department, including inspections,
drain testing and supervision of construction,
reconstruction and repair of drainage. Extensive
conversions of houses into flats are being done
and voluntary work is supervised.
Rat infestation is investigated by the Council's
Rat Officer (full time), who refers cases of defective
drains to the inspectors. Under the Rats and
Mice (Destruction) Act the primary responsibility
for destroying rats on land and buildings rests
with the occupier, but the Rat Officer investigates
all rat complaints and destroys rats in private
houses free of charge.
The supervision of dirty tenants is also an
important feature of the work of the staff. The