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The Campaign made a good impact on the public at the time but I fear that it
will take much more than this to shake the public generally out of their apathy
in regard to this problem, bearing in mind the vast amount of money spect annually
by the tobacco industry in advertising their products. Section 32 of the children
and Young Persons Act, 1963, substantially increases the penalty for the sale of
tobacco to persons under 16 years of age but it would appear that the problem of
enforcement will remain.
The picture is much brighter in regard to the older epidemics. In 1942
eight cases of diphtheria were notified in the Urban District with one death
(6 cases with no deaths in 1941, 32 cases with 3 deaths in 1930). There has not
been a single notified case of diphtheria in the Urban District for the past 14
years. In the late summer of 1947, suddenly and unaccountably, poliomyelitis struck
the country after many years of relative quiescence. Four cases occurred in the
Urban District. Immunisation against this disease began in 1956 and it is significant
that, since that time, there has been a remarkable decline in poliomyelitis.
There were no cases in the Crayford Urban District in the five year period 1959
to 1963 as against 13 in the previous five years. Pew would deny that this
decrease is closely related to the immunisation of children and young adults in
the Urban District first by the Salk vaccine and now by the oral vaccine which
has almost replaced the former.
Over the relatively short period under review there has been a marked improvement
in food hygiene in the District as a result of the implementation of the
Pood Hygiene Regulations and of internal developments in the Catering trades as a
whole. Refrigeration of foodstuffs is, now, almost universal and the wrapping of
foodstuffs has gone to considerable lengths. The opportunities for the occurrence
of food poisoning are certainly fewer nowadays (although there were two
notified cases in 1963) but constant vigilance is still necessary as human sources
of error can still defeat the most elaborate equipment. A further hazard arises
from the growing tendency for people to take their holidays abroad and the importation
of typhoid fever appears to be a growing risk.
In regard to housing the Council have pursued a steady slum clearance programme
both by clearance orders and by the demolition of individual unfit houses.
Among their achievements during this period have been the clearance of Arthur
Street and Boundary Street areas and the redevelopment of the site to include
three 'tower' (13-storey) blocks of flats, 76 living units in each block, with a
further block of 76 units a short distance away in Northend Road, the latter also
being served with special facilities for Old People' s recreation. Other development
has taken place in the Hazel Road area where 98 living units have been provided;
in Lincoln Road where fifty prefabricated type houses have been removed
leaving a sizeable site ready for development, and in Maxim Road, Crayford, quite
close to the Town Centre where it is proposed to erect more tower blocks. Altogether
the Council have provided well over 3,000 living units throughout the district
and it is of interest to note that the Arthur Street project was the first of its
kind in Kent. Included in this figure are five blocks of flats totalling 31
dwellings in two-storey accommodation for old persons (including a residential
flat for a Warden) at the Homestead, High Street, Crayford, and three two-storey
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