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Vehicle No. 1 (Table 1). This vehicle has now been replaced.
Vehicle No. 3 (Table 1). The Insurance Company after an accident in August, 1933, paid
£26 in respect of this vehicle which was not worth repairing. A sum of £200 is allowed in the estimates
for 1934-35 for its replacement.
During the financial year 1935-36 it will be necessary to continue the scheme of replacement
inaugurated by the Council as the next vehicle to be replaced, namely Vehicle No. 2 (Table 1) the
Crossley School 'bus, MH3808, is rapidly becoming unserviceable.
During the year under review the chief work done by the service has been.
(1) The conveyance of physically and mentally defective and blind and stammering children
to and from school. There are in all 306 such children on the list for conveyance and on
the average 255 are conveyed daily along 13 different routes.
(2) The conveyance of cases of sickness, accident, maternity and infectious diseases to hospitals.
4,324 such cases were removed in 1933.34.
(3) The transport of laundry to Kingsbury Hospital, Health Centres, Special Schools and
Mortuary.
(4) Conveyance of meals from the Feeding Centres to the Physically and Mentally Defective
Schools.
(5) Conveyance of children to feeding centres from Wykeham, Braintcroft, Wesley Road and
Stonebridge Schools.
(6) Certain works for other departments.
Staff.—The staff consists of a Mechanic Superintendent and Engineer, who is also Engineer
to the Hospital; one assistant engineer ; one fitter's mate ; and 15 motor drivers.
There are thus 15 vehicles to be manned and a night service to be maintained with only 15
drivers.
Of the 15 motor drivers two are wholly employed on Vehicles No. 6 and 8 (Table 1), 6 are
allocated to 6 school 'buses and Vehicle No. 2 (Table 1) namely, the Crossley school 'bus, which is
used as a relief school 'bus and also does work in respect of the conveyance of school meals, and 1
driver is on the Disinfection Van. This leaves 6 men to man 4 ambulances and do the miscellaneous
work. The work of these 6 men is supplemented by the spare time of the 6 men on the school 'buses,
but when it is remembered that many of the ambulance calls require two men, and that it takes more
than 3i men to keep one man on 24 hours per day, it will be understood that although the workshop
staff and even the hospital porters occasionally are used to assist the Service, that nevertheless some
calls have to be refused or kept waiting because staff is not available. It should also be noted that
each member of the staff gets 14 days annual leave and that it is only exceptionally that any man is
employed as a holiday relief. It should further be noted that with Saturday and Sunday feeding
of school children and the payment of wages on Saturday mornings, 3 'buses are in use every Saturday
and 2 'buses every Sunday. Three motor drivers and the fitter's mate are still on the temporary list.
Garage.—During the year the extension to the garage was completed at a cost of £2,928. There
is now available at the garage at the Municipal Hospital accommodation for a total of 31 vehicles
allowing 200 square feet for each and paved spaces uncovered for approximately 12 more.