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(4) Proceedings under Section 12 of the Housing Act, 1936:-
(a) Number of separate tenements or underground rooms
in respect of which closing orders were made -
(b) Number of separate tenements or underground rooms
in respect of which closing orders were determined,
the tenement or room having been rendered fit -
In 5 instances it was found necessary for legal proceedings to
be taken.
Housing Applications
The task of visiting housing applicants and the preparation
of reports on their living conditions has been discontinued, with
the exception of certain cases where information is required by
the Council's Housing Officer or by Housing Departments of outside
districts when a Wood Green resident is an applicant on their
Housing List, Several such visits were made by the Public Health
Inspectors during the year.
I am happy to be able to report that the closest liaison exists
between the Housing Section and the Public Health Department
Scarcely a week passes but consultation takes place between both
Departments in regard to housing applications. This particularly
applies, of course, to cases in which there is a medical background,
especially cases of tuberculosis. It is very right that
this co-operation should exist, and it gives me great satisfaction
to know that the weight of medical evidence invariably receives
sympathetic and careful consideration.
Hous ing Survey
At the beginning of the year the Minister of Housing and
Local Government approved the Council's proposals for dealing
with the slums in the Borough. One of the major slum areas is the
Winkfield/Acacia Roads area, in which the great majority of the
houses were erected between 1863 and 1893. It was with this area
that the Council decided to begin their campaign, A comparatively
large area such as this could not be tackled in one operation,
because before declaring an area to be a Clearance Area the Council
must first of all be satisfied as to their ability and resources
to provide suitable alternative accommodation for the persons who
will be displaced. This problem is especially difficult in a.
built-up Borough like Wood Green where there is a grdat shortage
of suitable building land, Of necessity, therefore, the proposals
for the area could only proceed in stages.
The first phase of the scheme for this area comprised the
group of properties at the Douglas Road end of Winkfield and Acacia
Roads. Detailed inspections of every house in this group were
carried out by the Public Health Inspectors, and in February I
submitted my official representation under Section 25 of the
Housing Act, 1936, that eighteen of the houses were unfit for
human habitation, and that, in my opinion, the most satisfactory
method of dealing with the conditions in the area was the demolition
of all the buildings therein.
In March the Council resolved that these eighteen properties
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