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66
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
I beg to submit a report for the year ending 31st December,
1954, of the work of the Sanitary Inspectors and other officers
under my control.
On the 1st July the Ministry of Food ceased to control the
slaughtering of animals and the distribution of butchers' meat,
but no difficulty was experienced locally in maintaining a fresh
meat supply as arrangements had already been made for slaughtering
to continue at the Public Abattoir. The Council and the
"trade" co-operated to such good effect that supplies of freshly
killed meat were readily available and were in fact on sale from
a newly established Market, within the Abattoir, immediately
after the Ministry control ceased. One cannot leave this subject
of meat supplies without complimenting the firms controlling the
various wholesale meat markets in the Borough on the speed and
efficiency of their re-establishment. These changes put much
extra work on the Department but one felt the results were well
worth the extra time and effort involved.
On the 31st August the Housing Repairs and Rents Act came
into operation and this necessitated a survey, by my staff, of
some thousands of houses in the Borough with a view to determining
the number to be included in a return, to be sent to the Minister
of Housing and Local Government, of unfit properties suitable
for clearance. Another part of this Act dealt with the granting
of certificates of disrepair, the inspections for which had to
be made by the Sanitary Inspectors. Up to the end of the year
210 had been applied for, of which 172 were issued.
In spite of the above "extra" duties it will be seen from
the body of the report that there has been little diminution in
the amount and variety of work undertaken by the staff in matters
of environmental health and I take this opportunity to thank them
for the loyal and conscientious assistance they have given me
during the year under review.
GEO. GRIEVE,
Chief Sanitary Inspector.