View report page

93
Some if not most of these aged people rely almost entirely on the Old Age
Pension for sustenance. There would seem to be ample reason for suggesting
that some authority should be charged with the responsibility of looking after the
welfare of these pensioners. It would not require any elaborate machinery to
effect this, and but little expense if the duty was placed on local authorities, and
the work of visiting carried out by Sanitary Inspectors or Health Visitors already
attached to Public Health Departments.
Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts, 1920 and 1923.
On the application of tenants three certificates were issued under the above
Acts that the houses complained of were not in all respects reasonably fit for
human habitation or were otherwise not in a reasonable state of repair, and on the
application of the landlord one certificate was issued that the repairs required to
put the dwelling house in a reasonable state of repair had been executed to the
satisfaction of the Council.
Other Propaganda Leaflets, etc.
Arrangements were continued with the co-operation of the Library Committee
for the publication of two bookmarks, one for adults and one for children. On the
front information was given as to health and educational facilities afforded by the
Council. On the back of the bookmark for adults information was contained
respecting diphtheria antitoxin and the arrangements for the prevention of
diphtheria by immunisation. The back of the children's bookmark contained
hints to boys and girls on how to keep healthy.
HOUSING.
In 1919 the housing survey established the need in the Borough for sufficient
dwellings to rehouse about 200 persons who were about to be displaced by the
clearance of the Wild Street area by the Incorporated Society for Improving the
Condition of the Labouring Classes. The Society is providing this housing
accommodation on a site purchased from the Council.
Owing to the extreme difficulty of finding alternative accommodation it has not
been found possible to deal with more than a few cases of overcrowding during
the year.
One of the most unsatisfactory features with regard to housing in the district
is the presence of so many houses let in lodgings. These houses were not built for
the purpose to which they are now put: the using of the staircases, water supply,
washhouses, yards, waterclosets, ashbins, etc., in common leads to misuse and
neglect; the tenants suffer much inconvenience in carrying out their ordinary
housework In most of the houses there is no suitable provision for the storage
of food and cooking. The structure of these houses is in many cases satisfactory;
the conversion into self-contained tenements would much improve the
accommodation.