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Smoke Control Area
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2.
3.
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Year Order Made
1959
1960
1961
1962
1962
The year following the making of each Order it became operative,
with the exception of Area 4 where one solitary chimney of a factory
burning wood waste held up progress. Eventually agreement was
reached with the firm concerned but this Order did not become operative
in 1963 and even failed to do so in 1964 (it will become operative on
1st July, 1965).
Bethnal Green is in the fortunate position of having a large
Park within its boundaries and there at least no contamination of
air is taking place. Nevertheless this Borough was considered one
of the blackest spots in London from the Clean Mr point of view,
and I am pleased to report that the task of making the whole Borough
a Smoke Control Area has now been completed. I know that this will
contribute in no small measure to the well-being of the population.
Old People's Welfare
This is a service in which I have always been greatly interested.
It is obvious that it is a problem which will demand more and more
attention since there are increasing numbers of retired people living
in the community.
A number of amenities are provided for the old people by various
voluntary organisations which perform excellent work in serving this
section of the community. The Public Health Department's main task
should be to locate those who are unable or unwilling to accept the
services provided by the voluntary organisationsj unable because they
may be physically incapacitated, unwilling because they may have
isolated themselves to such an extent that they have to be guided
back into society. There is a third large group who are well able
to look after themselves or perhaps live with their families and who
need no help, but even these should be known to us in case the picture
changes as it so quickly can in old age.
It was considered that in the population of Bethnal Green there
must be some 9,000 Old Age Pensioners and it was my objective, with
the help of the three Old People's Visitors, to get as many of them
as possible known to the department.
In 1963 some 1,200 became known which increased to over 5,000 by
the end of 1964. Although this represented a high percentage of the
total number of aged persons I had hoped to improve on this figure.
It was intended to have every one on the list visited once a year
at least and more often to those who needed attention depending on
conditions found.
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