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Public Health Committee in 1958, when the area to be chosen
could be finally delineated and the necessary work put in hand to
prepare the preliminary scheme which must be submitted to the
Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Meantime, the
principle that a Smoke Control Area should be established in the
Borough has been agreed.
The coming into force of the Rent Act, 1957, placed a certain
amount of extra work on the shoulders of the Public Health
Inspectors. So far as the department itself is concerned, this work
has proceeded without incident. As work under the Rent Act only
came into being in the latter part of 1957, the present Annual
Report is not, of course, the proper place in which to discuss the
final implications of such a far-reaching piece of legislation.
Altogether the year 1957 has not presented any significant
problems, other than those problems which we have come to know
so well. Housing still remains one of our fundamental difficulties,
and will surely remain an obstacle to the establishment of what we
know as positive health, until we are satisfied that the entire
population of Southgate is adequately housed. Few if any facets
of what we know as environmental health have such urgency and
significance. The social effects of inadequate housing, in whatever
guise they appear, are too obvious to require repetition ; the latent
effects are unfortunately equally far-reaching and fraught with
infinite harm.
The problem of our old folk increases year by year, not only
those problems associated with the admission of the elderly chronic
sick to hospital, but also the more general problems affecting
loneliness, chiropody and other matters too numerous to mention.
The Public Health Department has endeavoured in every way
possible to play its part in this truly human work, and is prepared
to offer its services to an even greater extent.
The increasing responsibilities brought about by the new Food
Regulations have also been accepted and implemented throughout
the Borough.
Unhappily, our staff of Public Health Inspectors, upon which
the routine work of the department will always depend, was never
up to full strength during 1957. As the Council will be aware,
however, this defect was remedied during 1958. It is also particularly
pleasing to report that Mr. R. L. Burkill, who came to
Southgate in 1944 and who has given excellent service as a Public
Health Inspector throughout his period with us, was appointed
deputy to Mr. Gooday during the year. Mr. Burkill has deputised
for Mr. Gooday on numerous occasions, during Mr. Gooday's
absence on holiday or for any other reason. The official recognition
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