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27
Housing Repairs and Rents Act 1954.
The opinion given in the last report that this Statute had not proved
effective to secure the object in view is amplified by the figures for
certificates of disrepair applied for and granted during the year 1956: —
Applications 134
Not granted
Certificates issued
No. of revocations applied for and granted
No. of revocations applied for and not granted
No. of revocations not applied for
17
117
87
1
29
The ostensible purpose of this Act is to be the object of additional
legislation for the Government now propose to legislate comprehensively
on the subject of rent restrictions generally, the decontrol of dwelling
houses and, insofar as local authorities are concerned, to amend drastically
the procedure entailed in the issue of certificates of disrepair.
Food Hygiene
Efforts to secure a lessening in the incidence of food poisoning have
been continued. The standard of food preparing premises and the
principles of food handling in the Borough is reasonably high, though
the number of notices under the Food and Drugs Act and the Food
Hygiene Regulations has increased this year.
A comparison between 1955 and 1956 might be of interest.
Number of Notices served under the Act and Regulations: —
1956 1955
Served 302 127
Complied 258 119
(including 35 (including 23
served 1955) served 1954)
Number of Food Poisoning notifications to the Medical Officer of
Health:—
51 50
(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.
Dr. E. Windle Taylor, Director of Water Examination of the Metropolitan
Water Board, has kindly supplied me with the information that
3,425 samples of filtered water were submitted to chemical and bacteriological
examination and found to be pure and wholesome.
Samples of the water at all stages of purification are analysed daily
in the Laboratories.
The part of llford in the area of the Board is supplied with water
derived from the River Lee, filtered and chlorinated at the Lee Bridge
works and Ferry Lane works and then pumped into supply. An additional
amount of water is supplied to the llford area from Ferry Lane and
Wanstead wells. 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.
All new and repaired mains are chlorinated before being restored
to use and samples of water from them are tested to confirm that the
quality of the water is up to that normally supplied. The water is not
plumbo-solvent.