View report page

40
The vast majority of households sharing amenities consist of one or
two-person households in one, two or three-room accommodation.
There are two matters included in the Report to which attention
should be called. In the 1951 Census it was stated that there were then
85 households in Westminster without watercloset accommodation while,
according to the 1961 census, there were then 115 such households. The
accuracy of both these figures is doubted for during the twelve years
since 1951 none of these cases has come to the notice of the Medical
Officer of Health. It is possible that some confusion might have arisen
from the wording of the 1961 census form, as the person completing it
was required to indicate whether the household had access to a watercloset
" in the building or attached to it This might easily have been
taken to exclude waterclosets in, say, the yard, of which there are a
number in Westminster. Further, in recording the degree of accessibility
intercloset) the symbol "E" was used to indicate "Exclusive" and
"E" was again used for" Exclusive" but "N" was used to indicate
"Not Exclusive". The explanation may, therefore, be that in the 115
households recorded as having no access to a watercloset, there was, in
fact, access on either an exclusive or shared basis to a watercloset which
is not necessarily approached from within the building or physically
attached to it.
Similar remarks apply with equal force in the case of 58 households
recorded in the Report as being without a piped cold water supply.
The Medical Officer of Health knows of no dwelling in Westminster to
which there is not a piped cold water supply available within the building
of which it forms part.
Sanitary Circumstances
Duties performed by the Public Health Inspectors.
The following statistics relate to the work of the public health
inspectors during 1963:—
Dwelling Houses
Reasons for initial inspections:— Inspections
Complaints 645
House-to-House (by Housing Inspectors) 584
Routine 935
Smoke Control Areas 1,377
Infectious Disease 124
Underground rooms 75
Other parts unfit for habitation 51
Housing circumstances 140