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93
a blow lamp to all angles and crevices in the walls, etc. ; walls and floors
are washed with a liquid soap containing a strong solution of ammonia.
This treatment is followed by the complete painting or repainting of
all walls and woodwork in the flat. These methods have been found
to be effective in freeing infested flats and in preventing re-infestation.
Methods for disinfesting furniture, etc.—The removal and fumigation
by hydrocyanic acid gas of the furniture, etc., of families to be rehoused
in the Council's dwellings and elsewhere is carried out by a contractor.
Details of the method employed have been given in previous reports. The
cyanide fumigating plant is situated at the Council's Monck Street Depot,
the furniture being brought there by the Council's or the contractor's
cyanide van in which the articles are treated.
The arrangement entered into with the Chelsea Borough Council in
1936 for the removal and fumigation of the furniture of Chelsea families
through the agency of the City Council's removal and fumigation facilities
was continued during 1937.
During the year the furniture and effects of 366 families were dealt with
by the contractor. Of this number, 260 were removed to the City
Council's dwellings, 73 to dwellings of the Chelsea Borough Council, and
3 to the Tachbrook Estate of the Westminster Housing Trust. Thirty
cases were dealt with at the request of the Grosvenor Estate, the families
concerned being rehoused in re-conditioned dwellings belonging to the
Estate.
Articles of bedding, clothing, etc., totalling 14,584, including those
from bug-infested houses and those under the Council's " bug prevention "
scheme in rehousing operations, were subjected to disinfection by steam at
the Disinfecting Station.
The shelter provided (a flat allocated for the purpose in the Council's
dwellings) for the use of families whilst their homes or belongings are being
disinfested was occupied on 11 occasions during the year and has proved
to be of great convenience. In the rehousing of tenants in its own
dwellings, the Council has adopted the policy that the furniture of all
families concerned, whether transferred from private dwellings or from one
Council dwelling to another, shall undergo the process of fumigation.
This uniform policy for all tenants is becoming greatly appreciated as the
objects have become understood.
During the year under review no instances of re-infestation came to
notice in the flats occupied by tenants whose effects had been treated by
the above-mentioned methods.