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7
Over the relatively short period under review there has
been a marked improvement in food hygiene in the Borough
as a result of the implementation of the Food Hygiene
Regulations and of internal developments of 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 (there was one
notified case 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. Amongst their
most notable achievements during this period, has been
the clearance of the old houses from the Victoria Road area
and the University Place area, and their replacement by
modern housing estates. The Borough now has no slums in
the accepted sense of the word but there are still quite a
number of individual houses which will need to be dealt with
in the next five years. The obsolescence factor is, indeed,
low and, with the increase in the number of owner-occupiers
and the provision of new houses by the Council and private
enterprise and the improvement of some of the older houses
by improvement grant procedure this favourable position
could be maintained. The housing needs of the elderly and
of young families living in cramped conditions either in
furnished accommodation or with "in-laws" present an
urgent problem throughout the country and are recognised
by the Council as a major obstacle to health and happiness
which should be removed as soon as possible.
The Belvedere Marsh encampment, which at one census
housed 971 persons in caravans, tents and miscellaneous
structures, since about the beginning of the century, has
been subject to Compulsory Purchase by the Council. Whilst
conditions were at all times grossly unsatisfactory, the river
flood which occurred on 31st January, 1953, produced
indescribable conditions of destruction which necessitated a
declaration of Unfitness on 20th February, 1953.
This resulted in the rehousing of private occupiers and
Persons engaged in business, to prefabricated dwellings
Provided by the Council in Jenningtree Way.
. By January 1954, the acreage of marshland so used was
ultimately cleared of all moveable and permanent structures