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86
Certain offences in relation to overcrowding have been created. Overcrowding
standards may, however, be temporarily modified by the Minister of
Health and overcrowding licences may be issued by local authorities in exceptional
circumstances.
In order to ensure that the survey of the County of London should be carried
out on a strictly comparable basis the necessary forms were prepared by the London
County Council, and the survey was started in all the Boroughs simultaneously
as far as possible.
In Woolwich a temporary staff consisting of 5 clerks, 20 enumerators and
10 survey assistants were engaged, and were employed for the equivalent of 229
unit-weeks at a total cost of £807 3s. 4d., half of which is payable by the London
County Council.
The survey was carried out in two stages. The first stage consisted of a
door-to-door enquiry as to the number of rooms and number of persons occupying
these rooms. As a result certain houses were found in which there was definite
overcrowding and others were found in which there might be overcrowding if
regard were paid to the size of the rooms. The second stage consisted of a further
inspection and measurement of all the rooms of all the doubtful cases. It was
then possible to say which houses in Woolwich were overcrowded partially and
otherwise.
The results were then summarised, and are set out in the foregoing Tables,
Nos. 28 to 43, which show the figures for the Borough as a whole, for each Ward,
and for the Council's housing estates. The figures for the Council's houses—
Gossage Road, North Woolwich, Page Estate and Middle Park Estate, are shown
in Table No. 43. The overcrowding on these Estates is entirely confined to the
Eltham houses and may be explained as follows:—
No. of families.
Family too large for house occupied — 92
Occupation by lodgers or two families 40
It will be noted that, in the figures relating to the Council's Housing Estates,
in 55 instances there is half a person in excess. In some cases this is due to the
size of the rooms included in the calculations, e.g., a room just under 110 square
feet in area, as many are, provides for one and a half persons only, while one of
110 square feet and over provides for two persons.
Proposals for dealing with the overcrowding discovered were being considered
at the end of the year.
Bug Infestation or Houses.—In the annual reports of the last three years
I have reported very fully on the Council's Disinfestation Scheme for the Council's