View report page

6
common base at the Sheepcote Lane depot. A further reorganisation
of the public health inspectorate was effected in June with the
appointment of an Assistant Chief Public Health Inspector to
exercise day-to-day responsibility for the housing division ; at the
same time the Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector became
responsible similarly for the activities of the general and food
divisions. With a strengthened environmental health service enjoying
a full establishment output rose spectacularly, being handsomely
reflected in the statistics of sanitary activity to be found in Part 4
of the Report.
Particularly satisfying was the real impact made in the field of
housing in multiple occupation. Here a carefully compiled rolling
programme of action—embracing initial inspection, remedying of
unsatisfactory conditions detected, and subsequent annual re-inspection
of all houses found to be satisfactory or brought up to
standard-—was implemented by teams of public health inspectors
and technical assistants. During the year 2,735 houses in multiple
occupation were inspected for the first time bringing the total
number known to the Department to 7,204 ; in addition 198 such
houses were brought up to standard and a further 350 reverted to
single occupation. These figures reflect a closely knit effort in which
the supporting administrative staff played a full part. Judging from
the results achieved performance budgeting is a more than useful
technique, given expert local knowledge of the problem to be
tackled.
Much disappointment had been caused by the suspension in
November, 1970, of 40% of the operative smoke control orders
in the Borough. This setback led. it was subsequently estimated,
to a 7% increase in smoke pollution in the affected areas. Happily
—especially so in view of the recent publication of the report of
the Royal College of Physicians on Air Pollution and Health—an
improvement in the solid smokeless fuels supply position enabled
the suspension to be lifted permanently. Accordingly the third smoke
control order to be made by the Council became operative in July ;
two more smoke control orders will come into operation in 1972.
The fruits of the drive against atmospheric pollution are already
plain to the eyes of the Londoner—ample confirmation of an
increasingly smokeless atmosphere is to be found in the measurements
taken locally. Another landmark in the clean air campaign
was reached in March with the introduction of regulations to control
the emission of grit and dust from furnaces.
Traditional environmental health activities in relation to general
sanitation, drainage, food and drugs, pest control, factories, offices,
shops and railway premises, the follow-up of cases and contacts of
infectious disease and food poisoning, disinfection and disinfestation,
and housing generally have all continued unabated. The
impact on the Department of the New Covent Garden Market
project at Nine Elms is well illustrated by the photographs in
the centre pages of the Report. With the growth of public