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aggravated considerably over the past two years because local authorities
are endeavouring to increase their establishments of Public Health
Inspectors to be able to implement the Government's direction to local
authorities to take up, as a matter of urgency, the campaign of slum
clearance which the war interrupted, and to cope with other heavy commitments,
imposed on them by recent legislation, for example the Food
Hygiene Regulations, 1955, and the Clean Air Act, 1956.
It is indeed lamentable that the shortage of Public Health Inspectors
is being felt most severely by the population of urban areas, whose need
for the sanitary service is greatest, having regard to the age and type
of district in which they live, and consequent acute problems of slum
housing, air pollution, etc. The reason for this is obvious ; few, if any,
urban authorities (especially metropolitan and extra-metropolitan
boroughs) are able to offer the attraction of working conditions such as
can be expected in a rural or semi-rural district or in an urban district
of recent development, nor are they able, in the majority of instances,
to offer applicants additional inducements, such as housing accommodation,
car allowances, etc.
In 1954, the Council approved and adopted a scheme for recruiting
and training of Student Public Health Inspectors, full details of which
were given in my report for that year. Two Student Public Health
Inspectors were appointed last year and the Council has recently
approved the appointment of a third.