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As will be seen from the figures in parentheses the work has shown
some decrease during the year.
Improvement Grants
My advice has been submitted to the Council in 55 instances during
the year.
Re-Housing - Medical Aspects.
My advice was sought during the year on some 98 housing applications
respecting which medical recommendations for priority had been submitted
by hospitals or private practitioners.
The re-housing of the aged is a problem involving medical factors
often Indefinite in their implications. Each case, as always, is treated
on its merits but necessarily any priority must be related also to the
claim of others rather than absolute in the right of any individual.
No general post-war survey has been carried out so that our information
is limited.
Action was taken in respect of 11, Brookway, Rainham, under Sections
36 and 90 of the 1957 Act. This at any rate dealt comprehensively with
overcrowding dictating as it did the permitted occupancy of individual
rooms.
Even under conditions of general housing difficulty it is imperative
that a watchful eye be kept on overcrowding especially when caused by
lodger or multiple occupation. Failure to do so is certain to aggravate
the overall position and accentuate the difficulty of a final solution.
Caravans.
There appears to be an increase in the number of caravans securing
temporary lodging in this district whilst what has become almost a
'permanent' site at Lake Avenue, Rainham, remains with us. Whatever
planning implications are involved in this caravan question, it appears
to me that our public health obligations are in no way minimised.
Whether a caravan is in Hornchurch or elsewhere it clearly ought to
have proper sanitary accommodation, water supply, refuse disposal
facilities and the like. It is, therefore, placing no undue hardship on
the occupants to ensure that caravans in our district do provide these
hygienic safeguards.
In the present circumstances of housing shortage caravans provide
for a diverse variety of individuals and circumstances. Caravans are
not generally welcome in the district, at least not in the part in which
one lives, and although conditions may be excellent relatively, they may
more often be sub-standard.
The sporadic urban caravanner tends under existing circumstances
to be untidy and from the point of view of environmental health supervision
of caravans represents a measure of prudence rather than oppression.