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normal office hours. These schemes have now been co-ordinated and extended to give as complete
coverage as possible with the staff available, and rotas have been organized to provide:—
(a) Every week night One Public Health Inspector on telephone
stand-by duty throughout the night;
(b) Every weekend One Public Health Inspector on telephone
stand-by duty;
(c) Every Saturday morning One Public Health Inspector with a Student
Public Health Inspector on duty at City
Hall;
(d) During each two-weekly period Six Public Health Inspectors and four
Technical Assistants are each on duty for
one night.
The last mentioned provision for night duty is intended primarily for the inspection of catering
premises in the late evening. Routine visits to many cafes and restaurants can only be usefully and
practically carried out during such hours and that arrangements should be made for this to be done
on a properly organized basis is of more significance in Westminster than probably to any other
authority. It is intended that as more staff are recruited the number and frequency of this type of
inspection will be increased.
District Inspection
For this purpose the City is divided into four areas and sub-divided into thirty-two districts. These
represent the same number as were operated by the three amalgamating authorities (Westminster
and Paddington twelve each and St. Marylebone eight), but adjustments have been made to some of
the former boundaries. Two areas, each consisting of seven districts, operate from the Harrow Road
office; the other two, each having nine districts, are centred at City Hall and St. Marylebone Town
Hall respectively.
Each area is supervised by a Senior Inspector who, if the staffing position would permit, should be
responsible for only a small district himself in order to allow him sufficient opportunity to supervise
the whole of his area and advise and assist, where necessary, his less experienced colleagues and at
the same time be in a position to keep the Chief Public Health Inspector always fully informed of any
particular problems arising in his area. Owing to staff shortages, however, this ideal situation has
not been fully achieved, and it has been necessary for each District Inspector and the Area Inspector
to be responsible for two or more districts, so that overall supervision by the Area Inspectors has,
in the first year of amalgamation, been somewhat limited.
Summaries of the work carried out are included in Tables 9, 10, 11, 12, pages 57 and 58.
Dwelling Houses
General inspection of dwelling houses arising from complaints and for routine purposes, as distinct
from duties under the Housing Acts and other specialized functions dealt with later in this Report, are
undertaken by the District Inspectors. An analysis of reasons for initial inspections of dwelling houses
is given in Table 9, page 57; and an analysis of 3,272 nuisances and unsatisfactory conditions found
and remedied appears in Table 10, page 57.
Notices
Eight hundred and ten informal notices were served and of these 386 were followed by the service
of statutory notices to secure the abatement of nuisances. In addition 298 statutory notices were
served under the Clean Air Act, 1956. An analysis of statutory notices served is given in Table 12,
page 58.
Legal Proceedings
A summary of legal proceedings is given in Table 27, page 64.
Noise
Three hundred and ninety-three complaints of noise were received and these necessitated 690 visits
by the Public Health Inspectors. A substantial proportion of the complaints were of noise coming
from building sites, demolition and engineering works and operations, involving particularly pneumatic
and other drills, compressors and pumps.
Frequently the complaints were of noise from these sources occurring late at night and during weekends
but it was found that, on having their attention drawn to the matter, the various contractors
concerned generally appreciated the situation and offered willing co-operation in seeking and applying
noise-reducing methods even where to some extent these resulted in a loss of efficiency or restricted
hours of working.