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considered for designation as General Improvement Areas. In all, twelve areas,
with a total content of 4,300 dwellings, were included in the survey and at the
end of the year the appropriate officers were considering in more detail the
merits of three selected areas before making a recommendation to proceed with
one of these as a pilot scheme.
Although the Housing Act 1969 repealed the power given in earlier legislation
to make Improvement Areas, local authorities are nevertheless able to
deal appropriately with those areas already declared. In this respect by the end
of the year all work possible had been completed in the Council's first Improvement
Area at Prospect Road, Childs Hill — 35 of the 38 houses having been fully improved,
the balance being occupied by elderly owners not prepared to undertake
the improvement works involved. As the redevelopment of the first phase of the
Ridge Road Housing Area, immediately adjacent, was also completed, integration
of the two areas in order to achieve overall environmental improvement, as
originally visualised, was achieved.
Work continued towards the completion of improvement schemes for the 91
houses in the second Improvement Area at Brent Terrace, Cricklewood. 95 of the
136 houses in Campion, Needham, Johnston and Midland Terraces, Cricklewood,
had also been improved to the full standard by the end of the year. Before formal
designation as an Improvement Area, the owners of this estate gave an undertaking
to the Council in 1968, to carry out complete modernisation of properties
as they became vacant and to improve the remaining houses including those where
the sitting tenants were desirous of purchasing for owner/occupation. In addition
to the improvement of the housing stock the owners have undertaken for the estate
as a whole improvements to the communal garden areas and the provision of
additional parking spaces and garage accommodation. The whole operation is
therefore proving to be highly successful in achieving the overall improvement
of what had been a somewhat run-down British Rail Estate.
Overcrowd ing
The following statement provides a summary of the known cases of overcrowding
existing or dealt with during the year, the standard of assessing overcrowding
being that specified by the Housing Act 1957.
(a) Number of dwellings known to be overcrowded
at end of year 6
Number of families in occupation 7
Number of persons in occupation 49
(b) Number of new cases reported 2
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