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51
and 115 about which action had already been started. This 115 included
the ninety-one houses in the Northolt Road areas, four in Pinner Hill
Road, ten in Palmerston Road, four in Crown Street and six at Little
Common. In April, 1955 then 183 of the 577 houses were the subject of
some action.
By the end of 1960 of the 577 houses, 106 had been demolished and
twenty-one had been reconditioned. During 1961 nineteen were demolished
and seven reconditioned, making by the end of 1961 a total of 125
demolished and twenty-eight reconditioned. Some 200 houses were the
subject of Clearance, Demolition or Closing Orders or were being dealt
with with one of these in mind. Of these eighty-two were vacant. It is
expected that many of those 577 houses included in the return but not up
to this dealt with will be reconditioned and so be removed at least for a
time from the list of these to be demolished. The fate of these cannot be
determined though until the Council is in a position to rehouse within a
short time the occupants from houses which are made the subject of
Clearance Orders or Demolition Orders.
Demolition of Houses
Once more little progress could be made in dealing with houses which
are considered to be unfit for human habitation. During the year only
nineteen houses were demolished. The position is more satisfactory than
these small numbers would suggest, because the occupants of many houses
deemed unfit have been rehoused by the Council but for one reason or
another the houses have not been demolished. Most often this has been
because the continued occupancy of one or two houses has delayed the
demolition of a whole terrace. Of the houses covered by Clearance Orders,
excluding those that have been demolished, there were thirteen vacant and
another fifty-seven had been purchased by the Council in the Northolt
Road clearance scheme. The nine houses in the group 44-60 Greenford
Road had been purchased and vacated. In the houses 34-42 Palmerston
Road which had been purchased were seven families. Nos. 15, 17 and
19 Crown Street and No. 1 Albert Cottage and 8 and 9 Albert Place were
all purchased but were occupied by six families. There is still a pre-war
Clearance Order on Nos. 1-5 Brewery Cottages which are still occupied.
The following houses which are the subject of Demolition Orders or
Closing Orders made before 1961 were still occupied at the end of the
year
1 and 3 Crown Street (1957), 14 Camden Row, Cuckoo Hill (1959).
1, 5, 6 Kirby Cottages (1959), 12 Wordsworth Road (1955), Golf
Cottage, Pinner Hill (1959).
Behind these figures of such very slow progress are all the families
doomed these many years to living in houses which have been officially
condemned as being unfit for human habitation and which would have
been in the long enough before that date. Even considering only
those houses dealt with since the war, it is as far back as 1954 since the