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SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA
It is with regret that I again record deterioration in the strength of the Public Health
Inspectorate. Five Public Health Inspectors left the Council's service during the year and
another Inspector transferred to other duties. Two Inspectors were recruited from outside and
one of the Council's students sat the examination successfully and was appointed.
Because of the depletion in Inspectoral establishment many important functions are either
being neglected or receiving less attention than they should. The Committee being aware of
this position called for a special report upon the work of the Inspectors with particular
reference to the duties which are not being carried out or are adversely affected.
To carry out its housing functions efficiently, a Local Authority must have a proper
assessment of the general housing conditions in its district. It needs to know what the net
shortage of dwellings is, the number of existing houses which ought to be demolished and
replaced and those which are in need of repair. It must also know the extent of overcrowding
in the district. In consequence of this need for proper information concerning housing
conditions, Local Authorities have been given certain statutory duties with regard to the
inspection of their districts.
The duty of inspecting dwelling houses is placed on Local Authorities by the Provisions
of Section 3 of the Housing Act 1957, viz., 'It shall be the duty of every Local Authority to
cause an inspection of their district to be made from time to time with a view to ascertaining
whether any house therein is unfit for human habitation'. In addition the Public Health Act
1936 places a clear duty on every Local Authority to cause their district to be inspected
from time to time for the detection of nuisances (Section 91).
Breaking this down into everyday language, we are speaking basically of the need to carry
out fairly regular house to house unspections. The present commitments of the department and
the number of staff available to meet these commitments, do not allow for any such plan of
house to house inspections to be carried out. In this context the requirements which are
clearly laid down by statute cannot be implemented.
At present, the vast majority of visits to premises by the District Inspectors are as a
result of complaints made by members of the public. However, this can only be viewed as the
'tip of the iceberg'. There is a vast unknown quantity of public health nuisances, mainly
housing defects, which are not brought to light, simply due to the fact that tenants are not
prepared to involve the Local Authority.
With a systematic house to house inspection, many of these defects would be brought to
to light and the logical outcome of this action would be that in the long run, the life of
these properties would be extended. Thus there is a real need for such inspections to be
carried out.
The estimated number of private dwellings in the Borough is 34,676. The number inspected
as a result of house to house surveys during 1967 was 2,634.
With regard to atmospheric pollution, there will obviously be a need for routine reinspections,
when the Borough becomes completely smoke controlled, to ensure that the ,
requirements of the Clean Air Acts are complied with.
There is a spate of new legislation which is delegated to the Inspectors. During the
year, twenty-two new items including acts, circulars, amendments, etc. were issued.
Particular mention must be made of the burden of work which will fall on the Inspectorate
in connection with the implementation of the new legislation relating to night cafes and also
the Imported Fbod Regulations. It should be pointed out that these are absolute increases in work,
and, whilst every endeavour is made to absorb these continual Increases, the task of Implementing
the requirements becomes more and more difficult with the continuing depleted staff.
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