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12 stand, preparatory to demolition and rebuilding. Closing orders
on 2 unfit houses were cancelled after extensive repairs had been
completed by the owners. This clearance of unfit houses is, however,
obviously a relatively small problem locally, although
nationally it is quite the reverse.
What is very much more important is to ensure that the older
houses do not get into this bad state. The Inspectors do what they
can to encourage owners to take the necessary steps to prevent
this, but the Rent Restriction Acts have handicapped them. Whatever
the points for or against recent legislation, the necessity for
encouraging the preservation of existing property is very obvious.
Another measure with the same object is that of making
"Improvement Grants" for the provision of modern amenities, but
by December, 1955 only six applications of this type (including
two in respect of rented properties) had been approved by the
Council. Schemes for a further five houses were approved in 1956,
and improvements to the value of £2,131 were completed in respect
of four houses, 50% Grants being made in each case. Much more
use could be made of these provisions. (See Frontispiece, etc.)
As a guide to the remedial work carried out by the Public
Health Inspectors during 1956, it should be mentioned that they
inspected 321 houses for this purpose, making 1,850 inspections.
Three were found unfit for habitation and 244 needed remedial
action. Of these 216 were made fit without formal notice being
required. In 47 cases notices had to be served and the work was
subsequently carried out, on 44 occasions by the Council in default
of the owners, mainly because the work was associated with the
public sewers.
Overcrowding as such has not received the concentrated
attention it did in 1935/36 and only two houses (involving 3
families totalling 11 persons) were known to be overcrowded at
the end of 1956, during which year 3 new cases were reported and
3 were relieved (involving 14 persons). This should not, however,
be taken to be a complete picture of the amount of overcrowding
now existing, and it should not be forgotten that the legal standard
by which 'overcrowding' is judged is extremely low. One fairly
frequent cause of severe crowding is the marriage of children in
a family without their leaving the family roof, and in a recent
example of this three families totalling 13 persons were existing
in a 6 roomed house without causing "statutory overcrowding"
requiring remedial action.
PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTIONS.
It is probably opportune at this stage to introduce the work
of the Public Health Inspectors, whose title was changed from
'Sanitary Inspectors' during 1956 in order to describe their duties
more accurately and remove doubts arising from the present day
interpretation of the word 'sanitary'.
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