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(b) Proceedings under section 12 of the Housing Act, 1936 :—
(1) Underground rooms in respect of which Closing Orders were made 72
(2) Closing Orders determined, the tenement or room having been made
fit 7
(3) Rooms affected by (2) above 16
Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954 Certificates.
During the year, 101 applications for certificates were received by the Town Clerk and referred to
the Medical Officer of Health for a recommendation on the issue or refusal of a certificate after
considering a report by the sanitary inspector on the premises concerned. Twenty-one certificates
were issued and twenty revoked. Eighty of the applications were from premises owned by two
landlords and in the last half of the year only three applications were received.
Re-housing.
During the year, 332 enquiries were received from the Borough Council's Housing Director, the
London County Council and other local authorities, regarding the circumstances of persons applying
for re-housing. Nearly all requests necessitated investigation by a sanitary inspector before the
enquirer could be provided with a report to assist him in assessing the order of priority of the various
applicants. The Medical Officer of Health considered 251 confidential medical certificates submitted
in support of applications for re-housing.
The occupants of rooms upon which closing orders are made receive additional " points" which
increase their degree of priority for re-housing, and until they obtain other accommodation the
operation of the closing orders remains in abeyance.
Immigrants.
Under an arrangement which has operated for the past seven years, the London Commissioner of
the Cyprus Government, with the object of avoiding possible overcrowding by sponsored immigrants
from Cyprus, consulted the Medical Officer of Health on ten occasions regarding the suitability of
accommodation offered by Cypriots residing in St. Marylebone to their compatriots. In nine of
these cases (involving thirteen immigrants), the accommodation was of the standard required by the
Housing Act, 1936, but in the other it was reported that overcrowding would result.
Common Lodging Houses.
Twenty-eight inspections were made of the two lodging houses, one of which is run by the Salvation
Army at No. 2, Burne Street and premises in Lisson Street to accommodate 391 men ; the other,
conducted by the Church Army at Portman House, No. 10, Daventry Street, is registered for 85 women.
At the quarterly fire inspections it was found that the fire-fighting equipment provided and the
precautions taken were satisfactory in both lodging houses.
SECTION E.—INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
Food and Drugs Analysis.
Samples of one hundred and one different kinds of foodstuffs and ten varieties of drugs were taken
and analysed under the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, the fee paid for analysis being £1 1s. 0d. for each
milk sample and £1 15s. Od. for each other sample.
The Public Analyst (Mr. Thomas McLachlan) has submitted the following report on the year's
work :—
"During the year 1955, 571 samples of foods and drugs were examined. Of these 519 were taken
formally and 52 informally.
The number adulterated or incorrectly labelled was 21. The incidence of adulteration may be
classified as follows :—
Number of samples Number incorrect
examined
Milk 113 2
Other foods 439 17
Drugs 19 2
These figures indicate that the samples submitted from St. Marylebone are better than last year.