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22
HOME SAFETY
The Willesden Home Safety Committee which was formed in November, 1956, has done valuable
work during the year. It is a voluntary committee which has the support of both the Willesden Borough and
the Middlesex County Councils. The Borough Council made a further grant of £100 to the committee's
funds in 1958 and provision for a further grant of £100 has been made in the annual estimates for 1959/60.
The committee's aim is to reduce the number of accidents which occur in homes in Willesden each
year, mostly affecting children under five years and people over 65 years of age. Its terms of reference were
outlined in the report for 1956.
Twenty-four local organisations and the Willesden Borough Council are represented on the committee,
which is affiliated to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and has two representatives on the
National Home Safety Committee. Four meetings were held during the year.
Dr. M. H. Southall, who had been Chairman since the committee's formation, resigned on leaving
Willesden, and Alderman Mrs. L. Dunbar, Willesden Borough Council, was elected Chairman for the last two
meetings.
During the National "Broken Glass" campaign, posters" Glass is Dangerous" were displayed on
kiosks in the parks and in schools in the borough; and an article was published in the local press. Letters
were sent to the large milk distributors asking for their co-operation by ensuring the collection of empty bottles.
The Committee also played an active part in the National "Guard that Fire" campaign. The
Housing and Estates Manager of the Willesden Borough Council kindly distributed 4,000 copies of a pamphlet
entitled " Fire Guards " with a new rent book issue, and also included an explanatory paragraph in a covering
letter to tenants. A further article and picture was published in the " Civic Review." Posters were displayed
on the Council's notice boards, in the public libraries, and in windows of committee members' houses. A
large store in the Kilburn High Road held a display on home safety, with special emphasis on fire guards,
in one of their windows for a week during September. The National Assistance Board, the London Electricity
Board and the North Thames Gas Board sent representatives to a committee meeting to advise on facilities
available for fixing fireguards. The danger of unprotected fires and the assistance which could be obtained
in fixing fireguards was brought to the notice of as many old people as possible by members of the Committee,
public health inspectors, health visitors and home nurses during visits.
Talks were given to several local organisations by members of the committee and health visitors.
A float was entered in the Willesden Carnival, decorated with posters and showing how items of
household equipment cause accidents. Three displays were exhibited at the Willesden Show, more than 2,000
leaflets were distributed, and films giving some details of the committee's work were shown by the road
safety officer.
A home safety handbook was published in July and over 2,000 of the 3,025 copies received have
been distributed.
The chief officer of the Middlesex Fire and Ambulance Service listed the causes of fires in houses
and flats in Willesden during the eighteen months ending 30th June, 1958. The committee decided to have
8,000 pamphlets printed giving this information and 2,000 of them have been distributed through the same
channels as the handbook.
The committee considered providing puppet shows on safety to school children. Several members of
the committee and the deputy borough education officer went to a school in Stepney to see a show and they
vill be reporting back to the committee at their first meeting in 1959.