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25
Slum Clearance.
The Government empowered all local authorities to consider the
housing condition in their respective districts and to furnish to the Ministry
of Housing and Local Government approximate figures of those houses
which they considered should be dealt with under the Housing Ac', 1936,
as amended by the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954. Ilford's slum clearance
problem—never so great perhaps as that of many contiguous authorities
—due no doubt to its reasoned supervision of housing conditions of its
area, was nevertheless earnestly dealt with at once and figures submitted—
after a rapid survey of the Borough—indicated that 291 houses would be
dealt with by either Clearance Orders or Compulsory Purchase Orders
during the ensuing five years. The Borough Council rested not on its
laurels but implemented these proposals with public spirit by dealing with
seven separate areas under the Housing Acts to such effect that it is anticipated
that the five-year programme will be fully completed within schedule.
Smoke Abatement.
The Beaver Report on Air Pollution focused public attention on the
problem of reducing this grave source of danger to public health. Many
conferences have indicated the extent to the public concern in the matter
with the result that the Government have laid before Parliament proposed
legislation to control the pollution of the atmosphere, designated the
"Clean Air Bill" and based on some of the proposals set out in the 1954
Report. Naturally, the Bill has been subjected to much opposition resulting
in amendments and although the Bill has not yet been promulgated as a
Statute it is felt that it will go some long way towards mitigating the more
serious of the ' smoke nuisances.'
One proposal in the Bill envisages the expansion of the powers of the
Alkali Works Inspectorate at the expense of the Local Authorities as
indicated in Clause 11. This quite naturally brought forth vehement protests
from local authorities—who were already stripped of many of their
functions to the advantage of central authorities—and from officers and
their associations. One great feature of the publicity afforded this public
health problem has been the willingness of the local authorities to deal
with it from a scientific viewpoint; many of them—including llford—have
set up atmospheric pollution measuring apparatus to determine the extent
of the problem in both its content and its ultimate spread. It is proposed
to set up three complete units in the Borough—one in the centre of the
town, one at Gantshill and another in the New North Road district—all
designed to ascertain the general extent of drift and effect of the greater
London 'smog.' The results thus obtained when correlated with those of
contiguous districts will provide a means of assessing more fully the best
methods of dealing with the danger not only locally, but also generally.
The legal power to deal with individual smoke nuisances may be increased
by the Act if brought to fruition, that however remains as yet in the hands
of our legislators."
(i) Water Supply.— The district is served by the Metropolitan Water
Board and South Essex Waterworks Co., both maintaining a constant
supply. The subject of the water supply of the Borough was dealt with at
length in the Report for 1945.
The part of llford within the area of the Metropolitan Water Board
is supplied with water derived from the River Lee which, after passing
through the storage reservoirs at Walthamstow, is filtered and chlorinated
at Lee Bridge works and Ferry Lane works and then pumped into supply.
An additional amount of water is supplied to this area from Wanstead
Well. Contact tanks are now in operation at these works in which the
dose of chlorine is able to exert its full effect before the water passes
into the distribution system.
Samples of the water in all stages of purification are analysed daily
at the laboratories of the Water Board.
Dr. E. Windle Taylor, Director of Water Examination of the Board
has kindly supplied me with the information that 3,030 samples of filtered
water were submitted to chemical and bacteriological examination and