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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Batter sea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the Health
and Sanitary State of the Borough for the year 1933.
During the year the vital and morbid statistics of the Borough
have been satisfactory.
The general death-rate (12.4) and the infant mortality (49 per
1,000 births, the lowest on record) are very satisfactory and compare
favourably, as in past years, with the rates for the County of
London.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme of the Council,
including the organised Voluntary effort in ancillary work which
is linked up and co-ordinated with that of the Council's Scheme,
has maintained a high level of success, and the fact that during the
year the infant mortality of Battersea, usually regarded as a
sensitive index of the health and sanitary state of a community,
reached its lowest figure, points to the efficiency of the Health
Services established by the Council under this Scheme.
The maternal mortality rate during recent years notwithstanding
a slight increase in 1933 compared with 1932, shews a
satisfactory decline, and statistics of the Borough in this respect
compare favourably with those of London as a whole.
Considerable activity took place in housing matters during
the year, the new Housing Estate (St. John's College) of the Council
being completed during the year, and these good standard workingclass
tenements, providing accommodation for 272 families,
were fully occupied. Progress was also made in the direction of
Slum Clearance, e.g., additional surveys of areas of old, worn-out
and otherwise insanitary groups of houses, were carried out on
the instructions of the Housing Committee in addition to those
already under consideration in the survey report of the Medical
Officer of Health, submitted in 1932.
The acquisition by purchase of Stewarts Lane, a street of
old, worn-out cottages, was decided on by the Council, and will
provide a suitable site for the erection of working-class dwellings
for rehousing in connection with the Slum Clearance proposals of
the Council, and will, it is hoped, help to expedite this important
duty of the Council,