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3.
alone, and. more than 3,000 have only pensioners in the dwelling, thus showing
how necessary it is to have our 3 visitors for old people. Of the whole
population, 13.6% (over 5,500) have still more than l½ persons living and
sleeping in a single room (in Moorfields Ward nearly 22%) though only 1,200
were born outside the British Isles, and all this despite the fact that almost
2/3 of all dwellings are municipally owned and not over-crowded. There were
no caravans or other mobile dwellings (though one caravan has this year
attempted to "rest" here). More than 36% of all households still had
neither piped hot water nor a fixed bath, and yet despite this, scabies and
lice are almost unknown now.
But to return to the contents of this report, it is encouraging to
report that thanks to the "Friends of the Chest Clinic" headed by Councillor
J.D.Welch and other regular supporters, the T©B. Care Committee has never had
such good financial backing, despite the reduced sale of "seals". The
improvement in the nature and quality of meals served to old age pensioners
has been so great since the service was transferred to the Town Hall Canteen
during the year, that 120 old people each day are receiving these 10d. twocourse
hot meals, either in their own homes or in the Council's clubs, and
this is contributing a great deal to their continued good health - and the
service is still continuing to increase. The changed use of the Council's
coach, for taking about a dozen homebound old people to the clubs each weekday
has paid dividends also, in that these people have improved beyond all
recognition - e.g. the crippled can now walk upstairs normally, and the
absent-minded are quite clear-headed.
With the opening of the new seaside Holiday Hotel at St.Leonard's in
1963, there should be a further improvement in health all round, for those
who so rarely can afford to leave London (the country home at Copthorne had
unfortunately to be closed for lack of staff). The 3 old people's visitors
paid more than 4,400 visits during the year and so contributed a great deal
to their comfort and health.
Great progress was made in several directions during 1962, in purely
sanitaxy matters, and this cannot be summarised satisfactorily in fewer words
than is presented in the preamble to "Sanitary Circumstances" (page 24 ).
Shoreditch has become well-known as the Borough where the noise of road drills
has been reduced on Borough contracts, by the insertion of a conditional
clause in these agreements. The reduction of fumes from diesel engines
passing through the Borough is also well-known, as is the introduction of
pocket tape recorders for reducing time spent by Public Health Inspectors in
clerical work. Two new smoke control areas became operative (Pitfield in
June, Wenlock in September), and it is hoped that fuel difficulties will be
much reduced before the winter of 1963 by ensuring the purchase, at reasonable
prices, of smokeless fuel by slot machine. (P.S. Hope of this is now, alas,fading).
The rat population has been much further reduced this year by finding
and sealing off disused drains so that breeding places are minimised, and in
this work the "Revealer" has helped enormously, by tracing the run of these
drains very effectively (page 52). So much have these items helped, that
not a single complete "take" of 108l was recorded.