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Finally much greater attention is required in the selection and training of food handlers. The
personal habits of some food handlers are disgusting - I have seen assistants in eating houses
finger their teeth or scratch their heads or pimples and then, without first washing their hands,
handle unwrapped food. Such behaviour makes it farcical and pointless to insist on the relatively
harmless dog being excluded from food shops whilst allowing the menace of the unhygienic pathogenic
human food-handler to go unchecked.
HOUSING - SLUM CLEARANCE
Fulham is an ageing borough, the majority of residential properties having been built at or
before the end of the last century. Thanks to vigorous slum clearance programmes in the past,there
are few houses remaining which are likely to become legally unfit for habitation within the next few
years. There are, however, many properties which,although old, are still substantially sound and
capable of further useful life. They do, however, in many instances lack modern amenities such as
bathrooms, inside W.Cs., adequate food and fuel stores etc.
This view was confirmed by the London County Council Town Planning Committee in its report
of the 25th May, 1964, on the Taylor Woodrow "Urban Renewal - Fulham Study" which stated that:
The larger part of the residential areas of Fulham consists of small houses, mostly in singlefamily
occupation and many owner-occupied although in the ma in fairly old, they are in reasonable
condition and can provide satisfactory living conditions for many years to come, particularly with
assistance from improvement grants
The opportunities for large scale slum clearance projects are likely to be less frequent over
the next few decades because the general trend nowadays is for owner-occupiers and landlords to
spend considerably more on repairs and maintenance, which will have the effect of preventing many
old houses from becoming unfit. It is indeed noticeable how many streets have improved in appearance
over recent years when the houses are owner-occupied.
Also, in the case of the larger properties, the 1961 Housing Act has enabled improvements,
repairs and property maintenance to be insisted upon and here again, as a result, the life of these
properties will be considerably lengthened
There is, however, understandable wish on the part of some members of the Council to
get rid of those properties lacking amenities and to redevelop the sites made available with modern
houses.
Unfortunately, there has been current in some quarters an idea that this can easily be done
and all that is required is for the Medical Officer of Health to declare the houses to be unfit for
habitation to enable the Council to acquire them at low cost.
I feel it is most important to point out the true position. A Medical Officer of Health can
only represent houses as unfit to live in if the condition of the house complies with the requirements
of Section 4 of the Housing Act, 1957, which states: "In determining for any of the purposes
of this Act whether a house is unfit for human habitation, regard shall be had to its condition in
respect of the following matters, that is to says-
(a) repair;
(d) natural lighting;
(b) stability;
(e) ventilation;
(c) freedom from damp;
(f) water supply;
(g) drainage and santiary conveniences.
(h) facilities for storage, preparation and cooking of food
and for the disposal of waster water".