View report page

9
they cannot compete with H.M. Inspectors of Taxes who combine North
Ilford with Barking and South Ilford with Dagenham.
One would hope that Essex County Council as a local authority would
respect local authority boundaries. This hope is vain. The Children's
Officer has divided Ilford up into three parts and each of the three officers
dealing with each part is also concerned with adjacent authorities, South
Ilford with Barking, Central and East llford with Walthamstow, and the
rest with Chigwell and Waltham Holy Cross. This does not make for
easy collaboration.
The borough is of course divided up between the Metropolitan Water
Board which serves the western part, and the South Essex Water Works
Company who deal with the east. We have in the past had a map of
supply areas from the one which did not agree with that provided by the
other.
So far 1 have considered authorities that have cut up the borough.
The other way of introducing confusion is the random association of the
borough with other authorities as may suit the wisdom or whim of the
administration concerned. For instance, Beacontree Petty Sessions covers
Ilford, Dagenham, Walthamstow. Leyton, Woodford and Barking. Ilford
County Court, however, covers Ilford, Romford, Dagenham, Barking,
Hornchurch, part of Rainham. Chigwell and Stapleford Abbots. The
Factory Inspectors cover Southend, Barking. Dagenham, Ilford. Chelmsford,
Maldon, Romford, Brentwood, Hornchurch, Thurrock. Billericay,
Rayleigh, Purfleet, Canvey Island. Burnham and the rural districts of
Maldon, Rochford and Chelmsford. The Rent Tribunal, however, prefers
Barking, East Ham, Ilford and West Ham.
Again. Essex County Council are not very helpful; the Welfare
Department merely puts Ilford in the southern area of the county, and
the local work is carried out from an office in Romford and no one
individual's duties are confined to any particular district. (Like the
children's officer, the welfare officer is a visitor whom we would like to
know and co-operate with.) The County Council are to be congratulated
in that, unlike as appertains in some other parts of the country, the Health
Areas coincide with the Education Divisions, thus making possible continuity
of supervision of handicapped children; as plans are now being made
for supervision of adult handicapped, one would wish that the welfare areas
also corresponded and allowed for utilization of the experience of the staff
of the Divisional Executive. District Nursing is managed from headquarters
in Leyton with a sub-office in Barking which covers Ilford south
of the High Road. For the mental deficiency aspect of mental health,
Ilford and Barking are jointly managed from an office in Romford, and
for some aspects of mental health from the same office in Romford the
boroughs of Romford and Dagenham are included. For the Care and
After-Care of patients from mental hospitals and psychiatric clinics that
part of Essex in the area of the Metropolitan Police District (excepting
of course East and West Ham) is in the province of an officer in Walthamstow.
It is a pleasure to have to record that changes can sometimes be
made in these areas if sufficient representations are made. The plan for
Child Guidance (under the Essex Education Committee) was to join Ilford
and Romford, although these boroughs are separated by another and the
Child Guidance Clinic is almost on the Ilford/Barking boundary, and
Ilford and Barking are joined for the purpose of mental health (under the
Essex Health Committee). This has now been satisfactorily altered.
The London Electricity Board from its service centre in Ilford and
branches, covers the borough of Ilford; so does the Valuation (Rating)
office of the Inland Revenue; this breath of logic is understandable as once
Ilford itself ran these offices.
Small wonder that the great voluntary societies have difficulties in
adapting themselves. The British Red Cross Society and the St. John
Ambulance Brigade each have their Ilford Divisions, but the Ilford Division
of the British Red Cross Society is under the County Director for the