View report page

of dampness but whilst the rooms are in use this may be confined to a mere discolouration
of a portion of the wallpaper and it does not have in itself any
appreciable effect on the health of the tenants. Once the rooms are closed the
ventilation is reduced and the dampness becomes much more serious, dirt and rubbish
accumulates, the areas adjoining the underground rooms are neglected and the gullies
become choked with leaves and rubbish; the general condition of the house is often
far worse from a health point of view than when the underground rooms were in
occupation.
It has therefore been the practice to recommend that the Council should make
closing orders in respect of underground rooms only when there are serious defects
which cannot be remedied at reasonable cost and to disregard technical breaches of
the underground rooms regulations so long as the health and welfare of the occupants
is unlikely to be affected unless and until the house can be dealt with as a whole.
Consequently the small number of cases in which closing orders have been made in
respect of underground rooms as shown in the summary which follows does not give
any real indication of the problem in the Borough.
32