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The weekly rent roll at the end of 1952 was £8,472 13s. 9d., compared with
£8,289 8s. 4d. at the end of 1951.
I am indebted to the Director of Housing for the above information concerning
the Borough Council's housing progress.
HEALTH EDUCATION
Informal Talks and Film Shows
Special attention has again been paid to the important subject of clean food
and hygienic food handling, not only to ensure that the precautions taken to see
that when food arrives at the consumer it is in good hygienic condition, but also
that the consumer does not expose himself to danger from food poisoning by
slovenly habits.
During the year the Council's work relating to health education was stepped
up considerably and there was again a large increase in the number of requests
for visits from the Department's film unit. During the summer months, owing
to the difficulty of blacking out halls, and a fall off in demand for this service
during the better weather, the opportunity was taken to circulate a large number
of organisations having meeting places within the Borough to arrange for visits
by the unit during the winter months commencing from October and continuing
until the following April. During 1952, the Council's film unit visited several
Youth Clubs, and films dealing with health education have been shown along with
films on recreation and travel to give added interest to the programmes. It has
now become easier to obtain suitable films since the hiring charges have been
imposed by the Central Film Library. Every opportunity is taken to use suitable
films concerned with health education which have been made by various organisations,
including large food firms, and these are usually loaned free of charge. In
all cases where a Youth Club has been visited further programmes have been
requested.
At the time of the Civic Exhibition in October, 1951, it was felt that some
permanent record of the occasion should be made, and the Council authorised the
making of a 16 mm. colour film. This is a silent film, but by playing a commentary
on a tape recorder to synchronise with the projection of the film, the effect of a
sound film is achieved. The various departments of the Council chose a particular
aspect of their work to be illustrated in the film. One aspect of the work of the
Health Department used in the film illustrates a Sampling Officer sampling milk
from a roundsman and the subsequent report on the sample by the Public Analyst.
All the scenes depicted in the film were recorded within the Borough. The film
has been shown on a number of occasions during the last winter season, and has
aroused wide interest.
Once again, as in the past three years, a number of informal talks were given
by members of the staff of the Health Department, and in most cases the subject
matter was illustrated by the showing of a film on the same subject.
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