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After investigation, 5 summonses were issued against 4 defendants, and the results of the proceedings
against 3 of these defendants are awaited. (As regards two summonses issued against the other defendant,
convictions were obtained at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 3rd and 28th January 1972. In respect of
one summons the defendant was fined £100 and sentenced to six months' imprisonment suspended for
three years and ordered to pay £50 costs to the prosecution, and he was fined £50 and ordered to pay a
further £50 costs to the prosecution as a result of the other summons.)
In addition, the City Solicitor investigated 28 cases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1962 for
non-provision of rent books (11 of these cases were referred by the Health Department's Enquiry Officer),
and 13 cases under the Rent Act 1968 concerning excess rent charges.
Overcrowding
(1) Number of new cases of overcrowding reported during the year 93(120)
(2) Number of cases of overcrowding relieved during the year 35(22)
Housing Priority on Medical Grounds
During the year under review 1840(1675) medical certificates or claims for priority in respect of
applications for re-housing or transfers were considered and assessed by a Principal Medical Officer.
Local Land Charges
The number of formal enquiries dealt with and reported upon during 1971 was 12,703 (10,884),
exclusive of personal searches and supplementary enquiries.
Tourism
Those who live or work in Westminster day by day have long become accustomed to the presence of
millions of visitors who arrive in the City in the summer months.
Each year different elements of the problems of tourism seem to thrust themselves forward. In 1971,
they related to young visitors, not because, as was the fashion a year or two ago, they sometimes slept in
the parks or around the statue of Eros, but because of the increasing recognition of their difficulties by
various organisations and local authorities.
The department had a particular concern to prevent the gross overcrowding which appeared to be the
inevitable lot of any young visitor who had budgeted his trip to this country on a basis of not more than £1
to £2 per night for a bed and 'breakfast'.
Double bunks, sharing with strangers, 'continental breakfast' etc. were each readily accepted by the
young people. They complained, however, about queuing for showers and toilets, and sometimes of the
lack of cleanliness of rooms and bed linen. One young lady complained that when her room-mates moved
on, she arrived back in her accommodation to find that two young men who were strangers to each other
had been moved in.
The 'creeping hotel' problem received wide publicity and no effective method of resolving it appears to
have been found.
Bearing in mind the experiences during the year of certain disastrous hotel fires the new Fire Precautions
Act will provide much needed and welcome powers.
The various studies of different aspects of tourism which are in progress, or reports of which have been
published, will, it is hoped, lead eventually to the elimination of many of the problems which continue to
give trouble.
Care must be taken to ensure that the more mundane environmental problems of tourism, particularly
accommodation standards are not lost sight of in the welter of reports which tend to concentrate, perhaps
overmuch, on the planning aspect and its relation to new hotels and travel.
Common Lodging Houses
There are two common lodging houses in Westminster. One accommodating 550 men is kept by the
Salvation Army at 18 Great Peter Street, S.W.1 whilst the other for 706 men at Bruce House, Kemble
Street, W.C.2 is directly controlled by the Westminster City Council.