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Borough of Bromley.
Report of the Medical Officer of
Health for the Year 1930.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors.
Mr. Mayor, Madam and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Annual Report upon
the health of the Borough of Bromley for the Year, 1930.
From the point of view of Local Government, 1930 will
stand out as an important landmark in the changes that
have occurred as a consequence of the coming into practice
of the Local Government Act, 1929. Bromley has been
little affected by this Act, except that one had hoped for
a little more concentration of local public health government,
whereas the Act conferred upon district councils such
small matters as the administration of Part I of the
Children Act, 1908, a work which was already being performed
in Bromley by arrangement with the previous
Poor Law Authority.
The effects of the Local Government Act are not yet
fully operative. Certainly the transfer of the Poor Law
to the Public Health Authority has done away with, in
many areas, the anomaly of two local authorities in one
area. The effect of the Act on Bromley's Local Government
of Public Health has been advantageous in one
direction at least, that the power was given us to act as the
Local Authority under the Midwives Acts. This was
obtained only after a Local Enquiry, and strong opposition
from the County Council. It must be obvious that the
Maternity and Child Welfare Authority should be the
authority for the administration of the Midwives Acts, and
yet there are many authorities throughout England who
have been unsuccessful in their applications. Local Public
Health government is so much dependent upon the personal
contact with the individual that government from a distance
must be less effective and more costly than government
locally.