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FACTORIES
Routine visits to factories and outworkers for the purposes of the Factories
Act were made throughout the year. A total of 189 visits was made
and three contraventions of the Act were found. In two of these cases
the matter was remedied by the service of informal notices. In the third
instance which concerned the dirty and dilapidated condition of three
W.C. apartments in a small factory it was necessary to serve a notice
under Section 7 of the Factories Act, 1937 and subsequently to take
legal proceedings. The case was heard before the Barnet Magistrates
Court and dismissed as not being proved.
SHOPS ACTS
Routine inspections of shops under these Acts have continued and no
serious contraventions have been observed during the year. Inspections
are made outside office hours and on Sundays in order to ascertain that
the closing hours are being observed and at shops where Sunday trading
takes place the Act is not being contravened.
HOUSING
The progress under this section of the report during 1958 has mainly
been in individual properties; only two small Clearance Areas both being
part of the same area have been declared. The reason for this slowing
down in the Council's programme in dealing with unfit houses has been
entirely due to the Requisitioned Houses and Housing Amendment Act,
1955, which stated that all requisitioned houses have to be released by
April, 1960, and consequently Council houses required for the rehousing
of the occupiers of unfit houses have had to be allocated to the tenants
of houses vacated under derequisitioning. However, as can be seen by
Table II some progress has been made in that two Demolition Orders
and five Closing Orders have been made. The two Clearance Areas
declared by the Council consisted of Nos. 1-6, Warwick Cottages, and
Nos. 12, 13, 14 Warwick Cottages, New Barnet. The whole of the Warwick
Cottages, that is numbers 1-14, were included in the Compulsory Purchase
Order which has now been confirmed by the Ministry. In January
of the year two Enquiries were held into two Clearance Areas declared
by the Council; one Area being in Leicester Road, New Barnet and the
other in Bulwer Road, New Barnet. The Area in Leicester Road was not
confirmed and consequently has been deleted as a Clearance Area.
The Area in Bulwer Road was confirmed, with the exception of one house.
This house was, however, included in the Compulsory Purchase Order.
The two Clearance Areas, Albert Road and Margaret Road, New Barnet
which were confirmed in 1956 and 1957 respectively are still not entirely
vacated although the housing conditions are deteriorating badly.
At the beginning of 1958 there were five houses on which Demolition
Orders had been served, the Orders being operative but the houses
not demolished and three Closing Orders.
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