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14
HOUSING is still a major problem. In my view it is the
greatest unsolved public health problem. Its solution would solve a
host of allied problems of physical, mental and moral health. We still
have the problems of a waiting list of approximately 3,500 a lot of
defective property, overcrowding, and underground rooms. The harmful
effects of bad housing on physical health are well known, and accepted.
Perhaps less well known are the effects on the individual. The INFANT
mewling and puking in his mother's arms, deprived of adequate air,
sunlight, exercise, space and quietude, exposed to increased risk of
infection, its mother lacking facilities for washing the babe or its
nappies, for preparing feeds or storing the pram.
The whining SCHOOLBOY, creeping like a Snail unwillingly to
school. Unwillingly because he hasn't had enough rest and hasn't been
able to do his homework. He has no place to play, to work, to relax,
to pursue a hobby. Suffering from the results of this and noisy and
inadequate sleeping accommodation, he is driven to seek his joys and his
sorrows in the streets.
Next the LOVER sighing with a woeful ballad. Woeful modern
ballad maybe, to which the adolescent, fleeing home discomforts, gives
tongue at the street corner or in the frequently undesirable haunts of
youth. ..... And so on, the YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE, facing frustrations,
friction and their fractious in-laws the FATHER, driven from home
to seek doubtful pleasures elsewhere poor MOTHER, overwhelmed with
the impossible tasks of home and family management, her physical and
mental health below par, depressed, run down and worn out and finally,
the AGED AND INFIRM; lonely, weary and apathetic, on a barely adequate
pension, incapable of striving against discomforts, inconveniences and lack
of facilities, abandons attempts at household care, neglects nutrition and
personal cleanliness, becomes ill, becomes still less able to cope and ends
in second childishness and mere oblivion sans everything.
To combat these sequences, the Council have provided 1,255
dwellings since the war; they are proceeding apace with the major slum
clearance and redevelopment schemes in the Treverton Street and the Kensal
New Town Areas. The repair of defective houses is being secured.
Defective underground rooms are being closed or rehabilitated, and overcrowding
is being abated under the provisions of the Housing and Public
Health Acts.
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION, apart from material damage estimated
nationally at £M100-150 per annum, causes smog deaths and contributes to
lung cancer and bronchitis. Lung cancer deaths in England and Wales
have risen from 11,000 to 18,186 in the past seven years. Bronchitis
averages 30,000 deaths per annum - six times as many as caused by road
accidents - and is also the greatest single cause of incapacity in this
country - 26 million working days lost annually. Under the Clean Air
Act, the Council hope to commence the establishment of a smoke control
area (smokeless zone) in the Holland Ward, in which there are some 6,349
' premises in an area of about 485 acres, with a population of 18,877 persons.
This would result in a smokeless zone of approximately 2½ sq. miles,
extending on the north from Shepherds Bush Green to Marble Arch, and on
the south from Olympia to Hyde Park Corner. The first phase of the
scheme, consisting of the area bounded by Holland Park Avenue, Campden
Hill Road, Kensington High Street, Melbury Road and Abbotsbury Road, is
awaiting the approval of the Minister of Housing and Local Government.
OLD PEOPLE. There are approximately 24,000 people of pensionable
age living in Kensington- Of these about 6,000 are on our Old People's
Register. Through the Council's visitors, we trv to contact all those who
may be in need.
These needs mainly arise from enfeeblement, loneliness, poverty,
insufficient provision of institutional care and ignorance of facilities
which are available for them. Where required, we try to satisfy their
wants through National services - the National Health Service, the National
Assistance Board, the Ministry of National Insurance, London County Council