Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hayes]
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REPORT OF THE CHIEF PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTOR
I have pleasure in presenting my fifteenth Annual Report,
which, for various reasons will not follow the normal pattern.
Owing to pressure of work in connection with London Government
re-organisation and the desirability of completing this
report before the 3lst March it will, apart from this foreword
be almost entirely statistical.
By the time this report is read the Urban District of
Hayes and Harlington will have passed out of existence and the
area will be part of the London Borough of Hillingdon.
It seems appropriate therefore that an attempt should be
made to draw a pen-picture of the state of environmental hygiene
in Hayes and Harlington on the eve of its integration into the
new Borough.
Dealing first with the basic necessities of life it can be
said that every dwelling has a piped supply of water every
house has a water closet, (97½% of them are inside the house)
eleven houses are not connected to the sewer (of these, two have
private sewage disposal plants, another three are due for early
demolition and the rest have well-constructed cesspools): only
2% of houses lack bathrooms and a supply of hot water on tap,
the provision of the standard amenities to every house in the
district has been approved in principle by the Council and one
Improvement Area declared.
Only one house in every 1,235 is statutorily overcrowded
and the average rate of occupation is 3.30 persons to every
self-contained dwelling. Despite a large reservoir of immigrant
population in neighbouring districts multiple occupation has
been kept under control and does not represent a serious problem,
but the need for continuing vigilance cannot be over-emphasised.
So far as unfit houses are concerned., on the highest practicable
standard, 33 houses are deemed to require demolition. Ten years
ago the Council constructed, on an orchard site at Harlington,
a caravan site for nearly 100 moveable dwellings. The site was
laid out to a very high standard and continues to serve a most
useful purpose.
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