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16
Poor Law and Hospital Relief.
The Clerk to the Guardians of the Holborn Union has kindly supplied mo
with the following information relating to persons from the Holborn Division of
the Union who received Poor Law Relief during the year 1929:—
Indoor Relief 1,106 persons
Outdoor Relief 308 cases
Outdoor Medical Relief 170 persons
Of the total number of 598 deaths, 401 died in hospitals and public institutions
cither within or without the Borough.
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE BOROUGH.
Scavenging.
The removal of house and trade refuse is carried out by contract. In the
main thoroughfares, and in a number of other principal streets, there is a daily
collection. In the remainder of the streets the collection is twice weekly.
The collection of house refuse from the main streets is completed by
9 a.m., the householders being required to put the bins on the kerb of the footway
in front of their premises between the hours of G and 8 a.m. This earlier daily
collection works well on the whole.
In a very large majority of the houses in the Borough, the old large fixed
ashpits have been replaced by movable sanitary ashbins.
The number of notices served for the absence of, or defective, ashbins was G6.
Litter on the Public Way.
During the year considerable attention was paid to the question of litter on
the public way alleged to arise from refuse blown or otherwise removed from dustbins
placed on the footway in connection with the daily removal of house refuse.
The London Traffic (Collection of Refuse) Regulations, 1927, prohibit in certain
scheduled streets the use of vehicles for the collection of refuse between the hours
of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. The prohibition extends to 30 thoroughfares in Holborn—
practically all the main roads. To enable the daily collection of house refuse to
be completed in these streets by 9 a.m. occupiers are required to place the refuse
on the kerb in front of their premises in small properly covered metal receptacles
between the hours of 6 and 8 a.m. daily. In a number of premises there are no
resident caretakers, the producers of the refuse being occupiers of lock-up shops,
offices or larger premises. Many of these do not open until 9 or 10 o'clock in the
morning and find it impracticable or inconvenient to comply with the requirement
to place the refuse bins on the kerb between 6 and 8 o'clock in the morning; the
practice has become common in the Borough as in other Central London Areas for
bins from such premises to be placed outside overnight. The number of bins put
out in this way on various days in the week varies, but on an average some 200
bins are placed out each evening generally in entrance doorways or close against
the building line, comparatively few being placed on the kerb. The contents of