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91
Methods for disinfesting furniture, etc.—The Council in 1935 entered
into a Contract for the removal and fumigation by hydrocyanic acid
gas of the furniture of families to be rehoused in the new dwellings then
in course of construction. The contract was made with a firm employing
a special fumigating plant housed in a temporary building at Monck Street
Depot. A detailed description of the plant was given in the report for
1935.
The Council also entered into an arrangement with the Chelsea Borough
Council for the removal and fumigation of the furniture of Chelsea families
to be rehoused in that Council's dwellings.
During the year the furniture and effects of 368 families were dealt
with by the Contractor, the bedding, clothing, etc., being subjected to
disinfection by steam at the Disinfecting Station. Of this number,
345 were removed to the City Council's dwellings, 17 to dwellings of the
Chelsea Borough Council, and 2 to the Tachbrook Estate of the Westminster
Housing Trust. Three cases were dealt with at the request of
the Grosvenor Estate, and the remaining one concerned a family in a
private house whose furniture after fumigation was returned to the
same house, which in the meantime had been disinfested by the owner.
The shelter provided for the use of families whilst their homes or
belongings are being disinfested was occupied on twelve occasions during
the year.
In the rehousing of tenants in its own dwellings, the Council adopted
the policy that the furniture of all the families concerned, whether from
private dwellings or transferred from one Council dwelling to another,
should undergo the process of fumigation.
The Council's Woman Property Manager states that no instances of
re-infestation have occurrred in the flats occupied by tenants whose effects
have been treated by the above-mentioned methods.

* Library books, 39; private books, 28; school books, 47.