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faulty hygiene. Areas of land in two neighbouring Boroughs have been used for Southall
Council house building because of the shortage of land within the Borough and to assist
with the housing needs of the people of Southall, and use is also made of New Town
housing.
The Census Report has now become available and in 1961, the year of census taking,
the number of persons per acre in Southall was 20.3 compared with 21.4 in 1951, and the
number of persons per room of each inhabited house was 0.70 compared with 0.77 in 1951.
These figures indicate that much improvement of overcrowding has taken place over the
decade, although it seems, in day to day working, as if there was little change. Ninety-two
persons over ninety years of age were recorded—in 1951 there were only 4; and the number
of Old Age Pension age was 7,892 (2,324 males over 65 and 5,568 females over 60) compared
with 6,803 (2,141 males, 4,662 females). It will be seen that there has been an increase of over
20 % in the number of Pension Age persons in ten years and this increase has been mainly
in females. The Census shows also that 3,707 of these people live in one or two person
households, 787 alone, and 1,894 in a house where the only other occupant is also of pension
age.
The availability of adequate water supply and sanitation in the district can be seen to
have extended to a larger proportion of the population since the previous census, but it
appears that 1,848 households, comprising a minimum of 4,994 persons, were still entirely
without a fixed bath (this compares with 3,071 households, comprising a minimum of 9,362
persons, in 1951); 1,612 households were entirely without a hot water tap, 56 households
were without a water closet within or adjoining their premises and 11 households without a
water tap within or adjoining their premises (five of these were show ground caravans).
In addition, there are large numbers of families sharing household facilities such as water,
stove and water closets, with resultant lowering of hygienic standards, and the development
of stress situations because of friction over the use of these arrangements.
These figures show the urgent need for the provision of bathing facilities in the interests
of hygiene, and the building of slipper baths is planned by the Borough Council and has been
given high priority amongst their schemes.
Figures obtained by courtesy of the Manager of the Southall Employment Exchange
and the Youth Employment Officer show the general trend of the employment position in
Southall during the year, and are as follows:—
Men Women
Number of persons registered as unemployed at Southall
Employment Exchange on 10th December, 1962 275 42
Number of unfilled vacancies as at 5th December, 1962 90 87
Boys Girls
Number of persons registered as unemployed at the
Youth Employment Office on 10th December, 1962 11 4
Number of unfilled vacancies as at 5th December, 1962 21 33
The Youth Employment Officer also made the following comments:— "These figures
show no appreciable change over last year, and taking the year as a whole, it was possible to
find suitable employment for the majority of youngsters without undue difficulty. However,
the 'bulge' gave us a larger number of school leavers to place and made competition for
apprenticeship-type vacancies very keen. By the same token, we had to find work for more
boys and girls at the lower end of the ability scale and this was often just as much a problem
as to find suitable openings for their brighter contemporaries."
Swimming Baths
The Southall Borough Council maintains an outdoor swimming pool in the Recreation
Ground, which is one of the public parks, and this pool is used very fully during the summer
months. The surface area of the bath is 3,600 square feet (120 feet by 30 feet), cubic capacity
16,500 cubic feet (110,000 gallons). The water is treated by break-point chlorination and
the normal chlorine content of 1.0 parts per million at the shallow end and 0.7 at the deep
end is maintained. During peak periods this is increased to 4.0 parts per million at the
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