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LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, ETC.
Compliance with public health requirements including the
repair of insanitary houses is normally enforced by verbal request
or preliminary notice to the person responsible. If necessary this
is followed up by the service of a Statutory or Legal Notice with
Court proceedings as the final means of appeal.
Over the years fewer and fewer cases have necessitated
referral to a Court and this is illustrated by the figures for 1956.
Of 645 Preliminary Notices served, only 78 were followed by
Statutory Notices and only one case was heard in Court when the
Magistrates at Wallington made a 'Nuisance Order' under S.94
of the Public Health Act, 1936 requiring the defendant to carry
out all the specified works within six weeks. No fine was imposed
but it was pointed out that a continuing penalty of £1. per day
would be required if the works were not complete in the six weeks.
The owner, who had to pay £2 costs to the Council, did, in fact,
do all that was required in that time.
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.
During the year, 524 yards of new sewer were constructed in
the District, mainly to deal with new development.
The majority of the sewerage drains into Croydon's sewers
and is treated at Beddington before the effluent enters the river
Wandle. Sewers from this and neighbouring districts converge on
Purley Corner where, periodically, nuisance and dislocation is
caused by flooding, particularly following heavy rainfall. Two
particularly severe incidents occurred after thunderstorms in July,
when a number of premises including 17 food shops and a public
house were affected and considerable quantities of foodstuffs were
rendered unfit for human consumption.
Negotiations have been proceeding for years with a view to
preventing this trouble and at last a procedure has been laboriously
evolved which should result in general agreement between the
Authorities concerned and subsequently in the required remedial
works.
CLOSET ACCOMMODATION.
It is the policy of the Council to abolish pail closets and
cesspools, substituting water closets connected to the public sewers.
During the year 10 houses and a Girl Guides' Hut were connected
to the sewer and 15 cesspools abolished. By 1957 only 6 pail
closets remained, the contents of which are disposed of in their
gardens by the occupiers, and some 106 cesspools. Most of these
are situated in outlying parts of the District.
PUBLIC CLEANSING.
The Council arranges for a weekly collection of all house
refuse, but makes a charge for the removal of trade refuse and for
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