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76
station is in operation. The Medical Officer of Health was instructed to
make inquiries as to methods of measuring air pollution and to obtain
estimates for apparatus.
Premises and Occupations which can be Controlled by By-laws
and Regulations.
(1) Houses let in tenements.
(2) Underground rooms.
(3) Butchers' shops and
stalls.
(4) Dairies and milk shops.
(5) Ice-cream premises.
(6) Bakehouses.
(7) Workshops and
places.
(8) Rag-and-bone dealers.
(9) Fried-fish shops and fish
curers.
(10) Street traders dealing
in foodstuffs.
(1) Houses Let in Tenements.—The number of houses on the register
at the end of the year was 336. The Sanitary Inspectors paid 1,153 visits
of inspection to these houses and infringements of the by-laws were
reported in a number of instances. Those infringements were principally
failure to keep rooms in a cleanly condition and free from vermin ; there
were also several cases of overcrowding and lack of proper separation of
sexes in sleeping apartments. Appropriate action was taken where
possible to obtain compliance with the requirements of the by-laws.
(2) Underground Rooms.—During the year, the Sanitary Inspectors
reported 50 cases of illegal occupation of underground rooms. In 40, the
rooms were being used as sleeping places and did not comply with the
Regulations of the Council under the Housing Acts. In the remaining
ten, the rooms were occupied as separate dwellings contrary to the
provisions of section 96 of the Public Health Act. Of the 40 rooms
illegally used as sleeping places, 15 had been vacated by the end of year,
the occupants having obtained alternative sleeping quarters; in two
other cases, the owners of the premises carried out works necessary to
make the rooms comply with the Council's Regulations. In these two
cases, the rooms in question were occupied by servants employed in one
instance at a club and in the other at an hotel.
Notices were served in respect of the ten rooms illegally occupied as
separate dwellings and as a result five of them were vacated by the end of
the year. Proceedings were taken against an owner in respect of premises
in which two basement rooms had each been let as a separate dwelling to
different families, and the Magistrate inflicted a fine of £2 and £2 costs.
This owner had in 1928 been prosecuted and fined in respect of the reletting
of vacant underground rooms at other premises in the same street