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47
Special Duties.
In addition to the general statutory duties outlined above,
your sanitary inspectors are also the designated officers under these
Acts :—
(a) Inspectors under the Shops Act, 1934—relating to ventilation,
temperature and sanitary conveniences in shops.
(b) Inspectors—Diseases of Animals Acts.
(c) Fabrics (Misdescription) Act.
(d) Petroleum (Consolidation) Act.
(e) Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act.
(f) Housing Consolidated Regulations, 1925 (Part IV).
Housing Act 1936.
This Act, which came into operation on 1st January, 1937,
imposes on every Local Authority the duty of carrying out a
special survey of their district in order to ascertain the extent of
overcrowding in the area, and of reporting to the Ministry of Health
their proposals for the abatement of overcrowding.
Section 67 of the Aet provides that it shall be the specific duty
of the Medical Officer of Health to report annually to the Minister
as to conditions in relation to overcrowding, and in particular to
furnish details with regard to dwelling-houses in which overcrowding
has occurred after being abated by the Local Authority.
It will be seen that, even after the two temporary survey
assistants have finished the measuring survey of houses in the
Borough, there remains a considerable amount of additional visiting
to be done for the purpose of following up and reviewing definite
and borderline cases of overcrowding in the area. In addition, it
will be appreciated that much of the house property in this district—
erected mostly about 50 years ago—is already showing evidence of
dilapidation, which will get progressively worse as time goes on,
and that more intensive supervision and inspection of housing
conditions will be required in future. During recent years I have
recommended the scheduling for demolition of some 73 houses in
the Borough; and it has been found that such action is the most
effective weapon the sanitary authority possesses for either demolishing
unfit property or forcing landlords to put it in a proper
state of repair. The procedure entails a great amount of detailed
work, as each property dealt with may be the subject of appeal in