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93
worn and washing facilities for assistants made available. These
last mentioned amenities may be provided either by fitting
specially made appliances to the stalls or by the stallholders
making arrangements with proprietors of neighbouring shops to
use facilities there.
Little difficulty has been experienced in applying the Regulations
to the stalls in the Council owned market at Bromley
although some greater effort was needed to educate stallholders
in the Penge Street Market. However, it has been an up-hill fight
to secure compliance amongst stall owners who open up their
business, on a purely temporary basis, in various places, particularly
on sites in Bromley High Street. These stallholders are
resented by the local shopkeepers, although they do use sites by
permission of property owners concerned. It was necessary to
take proceedings against seven stallholders during the year and
the Court inflicted a total of £117 in fines.
The unprecedented floods which occurred in the autumn posed
urgent public health problems. Sewers and drains surcharged and
their contents combined with volumes of rain and river water to
bathe considerable areas of the Borough in dilute sewage.
Under such circumstances there is always the risk of spread
of water borne infection. In certain cases householders were
warned to boil all drinking water and, as far as possible, assistance
was given with the cleansing and disinfection of underfloor
spaces where these had become contaminated. In fact no increase
in infectious disease was noted nor was there any apparent effect
on the degree of infestation by rats and other pests.
The flooding had its aftermath, basement dwellings which
had particularly suffered took a long time to dry out and in a few
cases this could not be achieved and the premises had to be
declared unfit for human habitation and closed.
Many shopping centres were flooded and all affected food
shops were visited and almost ten tons of food had to be declared
unfit.